Morris family vacation

All 14 (and a half) Morrises spent a week at Moon Palace, Cancun during the first part of June. It was a fun and relaxing week, and we are very thankful for being able to do this. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Morris for such a special treat :)

Family and friends baby shower in Merida part 2

Two of my co-workers at Blas Pascal when living in Merida - Ivonne and Ayve.


My friend Karina and I.


My friend Diana and I. I do have to mentione that she gave the cuuuuuuutest little terno for our little girl. Can't wait to put it on her.


We played loteria, but the "baby version" (loteria is the mexican style bingo).


My aunt Susy called out the cards for the game.

Family and friends baby shower in Merida part 1

My cousin Velia and aunt Susy threw me a baby shower last night and it was wonderful! The company, the decorations, the games, the smiles, the gifts - everything was perfect. The theme for the shower was "tipical Yucatecan," with salbutes and panuchos for dinner, and dried fruit, black beans and cotzitos for botana. They even gave out mestiza keychains for gifts for the guests.

My cousin Velia and I.



A few of my female cousins who came.



More and Diana - two wonderful ladies who took me under the wing as a young Christian growing up.



Oma, Velia, my aunt Susy, myself and aunt Miriam.



Oma and I with silly party glasses.

Conono

Conono is a man who served my family for more than 20 years. He is a "modern Maya" who spent his younger years of life growing Henequen - the "green gold" of Yucatan between the late 1800s and mid 1900s. He and his father were slave-like workers who served plantation masters.

At the age of 19 he married his wife, who was 13 years old at the time. He fathered nine children, and to this day has 18 grandchildren and one living great-grandchild.

In his late 40s, he decided to try his luck in Merida, the main city in the state of Yucatan. He was one of the labor workers who helped build the home I grew up in. When the home was finished, my dad asked him if he wanted to stay and work for my family full time. He said yes.

Just like Graciella did, he would leave his "pueblo" (hometown) every Monday morning to come to Merida and then return to it early Saturday morning.

One of my favorite memories of Conono was that he loved to play UNO. The four of us (Graciella, Conono, my sister Alison and I) would get together in his room every night and play cards. We were never able to catch him cheating, but we were all sure he would often steal the WILD card and use it on another hand.

This morning we drove to his pueblo to go visit him. This is the picture of the shoes he wears. The bottoms are made with car tires. The ones he has on are his "good" shoes.



On our way back to Merida, we had a mexican-style popsicle together.

Breastfeeding 101

Yesterday we invited Roberta over for lunch to get us intruduced to breastfeeding. She is the mother of my dear childhood friend Shirin who just happens to also be an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant.

I invited Valerie to come join us. It was a great intruduction and I am looking forward to the much promised gift my mom has told me she is going to give me - The Art of Breastfeeding by the La Leche League.

Graciella

I know that this is going to sound really weird to a lot of people, but Graciella was (for the lack of a better word) our maid growing up. She began working for us and helping my mom around the house and with my sister and I when I was 6 years old and left when I was 12. She would travel from her hometown every Monday and live with us until Saturday morning, when she would then return to her town.



She later got married and had a family. Her only daughter was named Lauren after me. The girl is so cute and so well behaved.



My mom and I drove to her "pueblo" (hometown) yesterday to visit her. I think it had been about 6 years since I had last seen her. She is still very nice and always laughing. For a living, her husband, children and herself bake bread and sell it around the town. As a thank you for our visit, she gave us some bread, which we highly enjoyed for dinner last night.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, papa!

My dad passed away five months and one day after Byron and I got married. He was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when I was one year old and passed away 21 years later.

He was a great dad! When I look back at my life circumstances as a child - father sick for so many years and parents separated and divorced when I was young - I am amazed of how well my parents raised us in spite of those things. He was always supportive of my mom and of our American culture, to the point that he would send us every year to the States (mother's ticket and full expensis included) to visit my family in Illinois.

A few memories that stand out about my dad:
- When I was very little, maybe 3 or 4 years old, he would put me in the car and take me for a ride every morning and look for dogs.
- When my parents were already separated, he would come EVERY afternoon after work to visit us. He would park the car outside and we would go out and visit with him. I would sometimes take my homework with him and he would quiz me with questions. I was always amazed of how intelligent he was and how he could still remember so many trivial facts from school
- My sister and I would go on "daddy dates," which consisted of him taking us out on Saturday evenings to a mall. He would each hand us $20 pesos, which today may be the equivalent to maybe $80 pesos ($6 dollars) and have us go find something to buy for ourselves. He would then sit in the food court and wait for us with a coffee cup in hand. And then when we were done, we would eat dinner together there.

The thought of him not meeting his grandoughter brings tears to my eyes. I know he would have been so happy and loved her so much. I can just see him as I bring her to his bed for him to look at. He cannot hold her, but his smile says it all. He is in love with her.

A dream come true - my dad walking me down the isle to get married.

Oma

Though most people compliment me when they see me pregnant, my mom's first reaction when she saw me for the first time last week was this: "Loli, you are so fat and huge!" Me: *sigh*

The funny thing is that every day (or every few hours), my mom will forget I am pregnant. So I'll walk into the room where she is at and she'll smile and say: "Oh Loli, I forgot you were pregnant!"

My mom has decided that she wants our little girl to call her Oma, which means grandmother in German. And our little girl has really warmed up to her Oma. I think Oma has felt our little princess wiggle and kick more than her own daddy has.

Oma and I have also spent much of our time together in the kitchen this summer. I wonder if our little one will grow to love the kitchen as much as her mommy and Oma do.

Cousin gathering part 2

Yesterday night, a few of my cousins came over for dinner. There were 8 of us cousins, plus spouces. Our dinner menu was lasagna, salad, garlic bread and brownies with ice cream, all of which my mother and I joyfully made.

I think there was a little confusion and a few of them thought I was throwing my own baby shower - LOL. Needless to say, my mother and I had fun opening the gifts once everyone left. Thank you!



My cousin Fary is also pregnant with her first baby. She is 4 months pregnant and having a little girl as well.

Cousin gathering part 1

Yesterday I spent most of the day with my cousins. I am thankful that my dad was one of seven children growing up, and as a result of that, I have a large family, 20 cousins in all.

My cousin Sihan and her husband Joaquin were unable to make it to dinner last night with the rest of my cousins, so they took me out for lunch instead. They said it was a private baby shower :)

Who would have thought?

Monday, June 13, 2011

Though married three and a half years apart from each other, my dear friend Valerie and I are pregnant together... who would have thought? Who would have thought we'd get to take this picture together, both pregnant with our first child!

June 16, 2007

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

As promised on June 16, 2007, I love you more today than I did yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that...

Kibis for lunch

This past Sunday, in response to B's request, my mother and I spent some time in the kitchen preparing a Lebanese dish - baked kibis with garbanzo (hummus) and labne. Needless to say, it was delicious and with enough for leftovers the next day.

A reading date

On a slow weekend night, if both B and i are reading a good book, we'll go out on a "reading date." It ususally consists on each of us ordering a coffee drink, chatting for a bit, and then spending a good amount of time across from each other reading our own book.

While in Merida last week, during some down time one afternoon, we went out on one of these dates. We went to The Italian Coffee Company, which serves, hands down, the best frappes I've ever tried.

Unbroken - highly recomended by Dr. Robertson

& a moka frappe.

The Professon and the Madman - a nerdy book B found at my mom's house

& a frappe frioreo (moka frappe + crushed oreos)

28 weeks

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Baby pics

On B's last night in Merida, my mom took out my newborn photo album. It was so fun seeing my parents get ready for me and then seeing myself as a newborn. A few things that stood out:

- I was born 10 days early.
- B noticed how dark my skin complexion was as a newborn.
- Based on my baby pics, i was already smiling and very aware of people by the time i was 3 weeks old.
- My mom was back into her regular body DAYS after giving birth to me.

It'll be interesting to see how similar an experience i have with our little girl compared to my mom's experience with me.

Familiar faces

For the past 11 days, both B and i have been in Mexico. For the first part of our trip, we were in Cancun with the Morrises, and then took the bus up to Merida for the second half of our trip. During our Merida stay, we were able to see a lot of old friends. I soon realized i had not taken as many pics as i had thought i did, so if we saw you and your pic is not here, we are sorry :p

Miguel and I at church.

M was one of my 12th grade math and and also Calculus students my second year teaching. I am a proud former teacher of a rising third year engineering student.

Byron and Ramon.

Great Christian, father and friend. Proud parent of a soon-to-be medical student. FYI - getting into the medical school here in Merida is close to imposible. Depending on the school year, there are about 2,500 - 3,000 seniors who apply to med school and only about 80 get in. FYI 2 - Students begin med school right out of high school.

The Glory family.

Pastor Chucho and his family took very good care of B during his 5 years as a missionary in Merida. Every Wednesday they would have him over for lunch. Chucho gave the homily at our wedding and remains a good friend of ours inspite the distance.

Their two boys were my students during my two years teaching in Merida.

Luis and Byron.

Luis was/is one of B's good friends from his 7-year stay in Merida. He was also one of his groomsmen at our wedding.

Daddy feels her kick

Yesterday was the first day B was able to clearly feel our little one kick.

Our little girl is 28 weeks old today, and she is not the wiggler that i would like her to be. It took her a while to move enough for me to realize it was her who was moving and not my stomach just growling.

B has been able to feel her a little here and there, but not enough to get him all excited. Last night, while spending time with the Morrises, i felt her move. I had B put his hand on my belly, and sure enough, kick after kick. B's eyes got so big and words such as "goodness!" kept coming out of his mouth.

So happy our little girls is warming up to her daddy <3

My teaching days...

Today was the last day i walked into a school as a paid teacher. It's weird to think that four years have gone by since i graduated from college and began to teach. Even though these past four years have met me with more challenges than i would care to number (or share), i still think that there is no other profession i'd rather do than to teach math.

So the question of the hour is -- will you ever go back to teaching? And the answer to that is "yes." Starting January 2012 i will begin doing private tutoring, maybe between 5 - 10 hours a week. Once all of our children are school age i would like to go back into the classroom. I would like to be at a high school or college, teaching upper level math.

Also, part of staying at home to be a mom means that i'll be a teacher to our little girl. I don't want anyone else to raise her. I want to make sure she learns her numbers and colors from me, i want to make sure she learns both English and Spanish, i want to make sure she is read to, and i know that no daycare can do that for me.

Byron claims to have known all of his times tables by the time he started kindergarten. It only makes sense that the daughter of a math teacher mom and a genius dad starts school already knowing her numbers and times tables :p

Pizza sauce recipe

Whether you are going to make mini pizzas using English muffins, or go all out and make pizza from scratch, you should never use store bought pizza sauce. After you try this simple recipe, you'll understand why.

Homemade pizza sauce

- 1 14.5 oz can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 clove of garlic, minced finely
- 1 Tbsp of olive oil
- 1/4 tsp of dried oregano

Mix together in small pan and simmer for about 1 - 2 hours.

It's aroma is outstanding! And if you are having guests that day, i can guarantee you that they'll ask for the recipe :p

27 weeks

27 weeks and 19 lbs later...

Today we had our monthly doctor's appointment. Our little girl is doing great! Her heartbeat was unlike other times -- it sounded just like mine! It's strong and at a very steady rate. She likes to move a lot, though she is still a stinker and whenever her daddy puts his hand on mommy's belly, she'll stop moving.

After the appointment i came back home and celebrated with a 2 hour long nap. I cannot believe how tired i get these days. Third trimester is sure sucking out all of my energy.

Memma celebrated her "birthweek" with 2 cupcakes at our doorstep. Mommy and daddy enjoyed them with some ice cream after supper tonight.

Memorial Day doings

For two and a half weeks during the month of June, B will be on his own in Augusta while i enjoy family and friends in Merida. This means that he gets to be a bachelor, which mostly consists of newspapers piling up, house getting dirty, clothes never getting folded or put away, and eating sandwiches every night for supper.

But sandwiches get really old, really fast (just like they did last summer). Last year B eventually gave up on sandwiches and ended up at Wendy's more often than i would have liked him to.

So this time around i decided to help him with some variety. So during my day off yesterday i spent a few minutes in the kitchen assembling some simple burritos. I assembled four at a time, rolled them and wrapped them in tin foil. I did this x4, then put them in a large ziplock bag and stuck them in the freezer.

So when he is in need of some variety during dinner time, all he needs to do is stick them in the microwave (w/out the tinfoil :p) and vuala! Dinner is ready!


I also baked some cookies to take to school for the teachers as thank yous for my shower from last week.

Spanish night

Last night we invited some friends from church who are from Puerto Rico to share a meal with us. I made chicken escabeche with beans and rice -- yum yum! The Acevedo family brought a very good flan for dessert and some "tostones."

I had been wanting to have these families over for a while, but things kept getting in the way. But with my trip to Mexico, and Sam's soon move to Alabama, i had to get this together before it got too late.

Our guests were the Acevedo family with their two children and both their mothers, and Sam. Check out the girl in the middle - Maria Isabel - she will be our girl's babysitter :p We will need as much Spanish in our house as we can get.


With so many people to fit around the table, we had to get creative and bring our breakfast table to place next to our dinning room table.


All in all, it was a fun evening. We spoke Spanish for most of the evening and B's head did not hurt after 3 hours of it. It amazes me how well my husband speaks Spanish, and even after not using it for almost one year, he can still jump back at it with no problem.

Byron's barber

Back in 2003, when B and i began dating, one of the things he wanted me to learn to do for him is cut his hair. Eight years and countless haircuts later, i still don't feel that i do that great a job at it. But he is a faithful man, even when it comes to his barber :p

Ford Focus vs. Tahoe

A third way in which B and i have "gone green" over the past year is by driving my little Ford Focus instead of his Tahoe when going places together. Ideally, i would have B drive a high mileage car as well instead of his Tahoe, but he loves his car and i don't see him giving it up anytime soon.

I must confess that this decision to drive my car instead of his came as a way to trim our monthly costs, not because we wanted to go green. We were looking at our budget and realized we needed to lower our expenses. Switching cars seemed like the fastest and easiest way to do this.

By making this switch, B and i save an average of $60 per month.

Meal plan for an insane week

I have been extremely busy these past few days, in addition to being very sick. I will be coming up to my second week of intense coughing and sneezing.

But it has been also been a great week for so many reasons. I had my first baby shower, got a box of maternity clothes, had the 8th grade social dance (which made it into a long day, but it was fun, none the less), and finally, i got the test scores back from my algebra class and the scores were amazing - with four perfect scores, 14 A's and no F's! What a great way to end the school year!

But this will also be a very crazy week. I'll be wrapping up the school year, packing and putting into storage all of my school materials, and packing for our trip to Mexico. So our menu will be quite insane.

Saturday:
Lunch: leftover chicken noodle soup
Dinner: Egg sandwiches

Sunday:
Lunch: out with family
Dinner: Spanish night -- we are having 2 Spanish speaking families over for dinner and i'll be serving chicken escabeche.

Monday:
Lunch: leftover escabeche
Dinner: dinner with the Morrises

Tuesday:
Lunch: out with teachers
Dinner: dinner with friends

Wednesday:
Lunch: doctor's appt, so i'll probably just grab something on my way there since it's also graduation day that morning at school.
Dinner: Spaghetti with salad and garlic bread

Thursday:
Lunch: out with teachers -- last day students report to class!
Dinner: Spaghetti with salad and garlic bread

Friday:
Lunch: PTO lunch at school -- teacher work day and last day i show up at school... for a very long time :)
Dinner: Egg sandwiches

Maternity clothes

When i found out i was pregnant back in December, one of the aspects that made me nervous was maternity clothes. I don't like to shop, i don't know how to shop, and when i do shop, half the time i feel guilty for doing so.

So i decided that time would determine what to do in regards to this.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that maternity clothes swapping was a very common thing to do. Out of nowhere, people from church would hand me a grocery bag here and there with some maternity clothes. Some of it would work, some of it wouldn't.

I eventually broke down and ended up buying some much needed maternity shorts for our trip to Disney and then 2 tops for me to wear to school (the normal ones i was wearing began to look mighty ridiculous after a while).

But today i hit jackpot! One of the younger teachers at school who has two little children handed me a box of her maternity clothes.


I began looking through it once i got home, and needless to say, if i were to wear every single item in that box, i would have a new outfit to wear every day until my due date :p

I went through them and first sorted them out through fits and does not fit. Then i even had the luxury of selecting from those that fit me those that i liked and did not like. So by the end of it, this is what i ended up with:


Thank you Allison for your generosity! Can't wait to begin to wear them.