11/2/07: Last night was a rough night, but this time it was me. I was up all night with the stomache flu! Christian called in to work this morning for them
to forward his calls to home. He's driving the carpool to school right now and he'll be home all day to help with the kids. Wow, I've never had a flu bug this late in a pregnancy. The movement of the baby sure makes things a lot worse. Ugh!
PS. No news from Tracy and Araceli. We are STILL waiting on baby Caleb to make his debut. They are due on Nov. 8th.
11/1/07: Landon did end up making it to go to the Festival at our church last night. I was thrilled that the whole family could make it! Our costumes were a hit and we all had fun. I was so busy, I hardly had a moment to snap a picture. Possibly, I'll get pix from a few friends from the night.
I tried something new with our church festival this year. It is called Heroes Unmasked. I ordered the box kit last year and have been in the works of planning it for the last few months. It turned out so great. Here is an e-mail I sent to my parents' and sisters' church. If you have any connections with the Children's Minister or Event Planner at your church you may want to have them check this out...
We did Heroes Unmasked by Group Publishing at our church for the first time last night. It is a "twist" on a Fall Festival that incorporates Bible Heroes and the Gospel into a fun and interactive evening for families. There is a kit to order that comes in a box (similar to VBS curriculum) that has all of the instructions of how to set up your own carnival. Included are game ideas for the night (Putt-Putt through the Red Sea, Daniels Mane Showdown, Elijah's Flaming Chicken Race, Noah's Operation Rescue, Goliath's Marshmallow hurl.....) The games were great!! It also has a script for puppet shows and an awesome 10 minute drama called the "Empty Cave". There are trading cards to collect from the costumed Bible Heroes and lots of fun ideas for food and crafts. It was a HUGE success for our church last night and would highly reccomend it to any church wanting to try something new to reach their community with the Gospel. It was FABULOUS!
Here is the link to the website for the kit and supplies-
10/30/07: Landon woke up in th middle of the night last night with throw-up all over him and his bed. He was burning up, confused, and crying. Christian and I tag-teamed the bath and the bed sheets and got him back to sleep in no time. He woke up around 6AM doing OK and I let him in my bed. He drank a bit of water and then threw up again (in my bed). Poor little guy just didn't know what to think of it. He hadn't thrown up in over a year and was quite confused with the whole thing. He laid around some and played some, but I didn't give him much to eat or drink all day today- just a little Gatorade and a few soda crackers. His last vomitting episode was around 1 PM and his fever broke around then too. I called in sick for work tomorrow to keep Landon with me, but I will probably still go in a little bit with him if he's doing OK. The Fall Family Festival is a BIG part of my job, and not being in at all tomorrow would be difficult.
Please pray that Landon will stay fever-free and throw-up free tomorrow because I REALLY want our family to be able to go to our festival together tomorrow night. I love our costumes and it would be dissapointing to not be able to show them off as a family to all of our friends! But, of course Landon needs to be well to attend. No matter what, I will go and take the girls if Landon is still feverish, but I want us all to enjoy the night as a family. Come on my sweet baby boy- Get well soon!
10/29/07: Well, here it is, 35 weeks today! I had a pre-natal visit today. Ava is in "head down" position- ready to be born. This doesn't mean that she will be early, but it does mean we have little risk of her being breech (feet first, or bottom first). So, that's good news! I got to see her in action today. She is moving a ton! My doctor says that I am measuring right on track with my due date and everything is looking good. I lost 1 more pound, that brings me to -23 lbs. Yippee!
I have a baby shower this weekend in Westlake Village. Two of my mom's friends are throwing it for me. It will be fun to have some new items to put in Ava's room. Being baby #4, we have most of the necessities, but it's always nice to get some brand new things of her very own. There were also a few things that the other 3 kids just completely wore out- like our travel system stroller/carseat combo. Poor Landon used the stroller with the brakes tied up with a rope- Ava will have a new one. I registered for a few things to give some of the guests a few ideas for little Ava. If you're curious...go to
http://www.target.com/gp/registry/babyreg.html
to put in my name to view the registry.
1. Landon and I were lying in my bed in the morning after Christian had left for work. We were both still pretty sleepy. Landon's tummy growled. He looked up at me and with the most inquisitive look on his face, he shouts, "Hey! What's my Ava doing?"
2. He saw a catalog at a friends house that had a wooden train set in it. He told me, "I wanna go Target, get a train, bring home, to KEEP." (I guess I've handed him one too many toys to keep him happy while shopping that some how disappear before we get to the register?? He figured me out!)
3. I handed him a sippy of milk and he says, "No like white milk. Like it chocolate and shake it up."
4. When we were at my parents house I walked in and said "Hi Dad." to my dad. Landon said in a frustrated voice says, "No that's not Daddy, that's Papa!" I said "He's my Daddy." Landon still a little frustrated with me, takes my hand and pulls me, "Come here.." He proceeds to pull me to the bottom of the stairs. He points to Christian at the top of the stairs and says, "That's Daddy!".
I love the age of 2 years old. It's my absolute favorite age! I love the things that 2-year-olds say and do. So much fun!!
10/23/07: A quick update to the Southern California fires... I do not have any family or close friends that have been evacuated or affected directly by the fires. There are I think 14 fires (last counted) in the Southern California area. The closest one to my house is in Irvine- near where Christian works. There are terrible ones in San Diego County, Lake Arrowhead, Malibu, plus lots more.. The sky is gray and has been since Saturday night. The air quality is horrible; the kids havn't been able to play or eat outside at school. Everywhere we look there are plumes of smoke in the air- to the north, south, east and west! Thank God we do not live in any "Brush Areas". Keep those who do in your prayers. It's 96 degrees today with winds up to 80 miles an hour in some areas. Pray for cooler and calmer weather- perhaps even rain!
10/22/07: We had a fabulous day in Apple Country. Since I was in Jr. High I have gone to the Apple Farm with the Landers family almost every year. Jen and I have been good friends since we were placed on the same softball team in the 4th grade. Her family has always taken me along on this trip, and now that their family has grown... and so has mine, it has been a big Landers tradition! I look forward to this trip every year!
10/18/07: See how well you know the Torresluna's. Take our quiz (even if you think you don't know us that well). It's so much fun to see what you all pay attention to. I love these!
10/17/07: Our good friends, Tracy and Araceli Ross are in labor with their 3rd child today. WooHoo! They were not due until Nov. 8th, but their other two babies came a little early also. They have 2 children already- Emily- 3 yrs., and Adam- 17 mos. Come on baby Caleb; we can't wait to meet you!
Christian's work contest... He received the camera. It was a nice camera, but pretty much the same as the one we already have. The new one came in the shipping box with the invoice from Best Buy. So he went there and exchanged it for an iPod Nano. He has been in complete HEAVEN since he got it! I'm glad he purchased something he really wanted. He worked hard for it and earned it!
The PJ party at church... We had 34 kids attend. It was a blast! I have pix, but not a moment to post for now. I'll get caught up on posting pix soon.
Madeline's first slumber party away from home... She did great! I knew she would. The main worries I have with my babies going to other people's houses are that I can't monitor what they will see, hear, or be exposed to when Mommy and Daddy aren't calling the shots. I know that all parents have different standards and values for their kids. I tend to think we filter what they see and hear pretty well...(but we do allow Hannah Montana) and not all parents are as cautious about what their kids watch. Anyway, she did great! They slept in a tent in the living room, watched movies until midnight, and baked cookies in the morning. So much fun!
My Social Security saga... They gave me a receipt for the SS card and I took that to the college district office and should expect to receive my real card in the mail in two weeks. I start teaching tonight at 6PM. I will keep the new card under lock and key!
Our Halloween costumes... Nope, I'm not telling! I'm excited to see the whole family together though. It's gonna be very cute!
Ava Claire... Well, she's getting bigger and heavier by the day. My bum is feeling a lot better! My tummy is feeling the stretching a ton now. I'm getting really big, but I have LOST a total of 22 pounds this pregnancy so far- typical for me. I can't wait to see our baby girl! Less than 7 weeks to go!
The colds... All three of the kids caught the same head and chest cold. The girls are over it; Landon still has the cough. It was a nasty one, but no fever and not a day missed from school or work for any of us. Christian and I never caught it...knock on wood!
Christian and I got to go out on a last minute "date night" last night. We went to the mall and had dinner, window shopped, hung out with the awesome massage chairs and foot massagers at Brookstone (wish we could afford that stuff!), Christian played Wii games while I took a little rest from walking, and then we had a "Cinnibon" to end the evening. It was a fun night!
I guess that's about it for now. We have all been really busy, but I'll try to get some pictures posted soon! Love to you all... Julie
10/12/07:We have a pajama party at church tonight. Madeline has her first sleep over at a school-friend's house afterwards. She has spent the night at Karina Love's house, but we know the Love's very well, so that wasn't a big deal. But now, we are letting our baby go...it's a scary thing! I adore this friend, Miriam, and her family. I've met the Mom and Dad several times and I really like the family. But, it's still a big step. For those of you that have little ones, just wait for the day when your son or daughter wants to take the leap of a sleep-over. It's plenty easy to do it at your house. But, let them go somewhere else?!? Aaahhh!! Here we go!
10/12/07: Our Halloween costumes are a surprise this year. I'm not gonna tell you all. Wait til you see what the Torresluna family is up to this year! The pix are going to be great! Stay tuned for October 31st........
10/12/07: Wowee! Was today a crazy day?!!? I lost my social security card (years ago- who know's when???!?) but, I need a copy of it for the college I work for by Tuesday and Monday's a holiday. They told me a year ago that I needed it on file, but I never got around to doing it; it didn't seem like they'd ever notice that I didn't have one on file. But, I guess it caught up with me and my file.... Procrastination sometimes gets the best of me! So, I had to go to the social security office in Santa Ana to get a new one. They open at 9AM, I was there by 9:30 to pull a ticket that said I had a wait time of 40 minutes- not good, but not too bad I thought. I pulled ticket #B-80. I put it in the cup holder of Landon's stroller and didn't give it another thought. 40 minutes pass by and the # screen had gone from B-70 to B-71- that 's when I knew I was gonna be there a while. Madeline was at school so I had Emma and Landon with me. They each brought a couple of small toys to keep them busy. After lots of "Keep your hands off your brother", "Use your kind words with your sister", and "We'll get a snack when we get home"..., I notice (at 11:45) that it's on #B-79. Yeah, almost our turn!! I go to reach into the cup holder and our ticket is gone. No biggie I thought, I'll just tell the lady at the window when it's my turn that I lost my ticket paper. Well, finally at 11:55 my number gets called. I gather up the kids and start to go up to the ticket window and there are 2 non-English speaking men (that I saw walk in not 20 minutes earlier) with ticket #B-80!! They had already started their process at the window. I looked at them and said, "That was my ticket! You found it on the floor!" (Not accusing them of stealing it out of my stroller!) They claim to say that they got it out of the ticket machine... but I told the lady to look at it. I knew that it had my time 9:46 and it also said a 40 minute wait on it. She said that it did. These men continued to tell her they got it our of the machine and they had waited a long time too. I was shocked by their blatent lie! The lady told me to pull another ticket and begin the wait time again. With tears in my eyes, I looked at her and said I needed to get my kids home to eat lunch and be there when my daughter gets home from school and already waited 2 1/2 hours- pregnant and with 2 small kids. She UN-empathetically said, "Sorry". As I was walking out to go home and do this another day, the security guard told me to wait a minute. He went and talked to the lady and got her to take my next. She wasn't happy about it, but she did. I finally got to leave that horrible place after 3 LONG hours of waiting! Thank God that my kids were distracting enough for the security guard to notice that he had been there since 9:30 in the stinkin' morning! Finally it's over and I can start back to work at Santa Ana College on Tuesday. Long story...I know, but I had to vent!
10/9/07: I had a great time at retreat! It was really nice to get away for awhile. We had so much fun learning about God, singing, playing lots of fun games (Outburst, Taboo, Cranium...), shopping, going out to eat, and just visiting. It was awesome!
Christian did great with the kids too. Friday night he took them to dinner (at McD's of course!) and then they went to Wal-mart for a few things. Saturday morning bright and early he had another 5K Run that he did. He had all the kids up, dressed, and out the door by 6 AM! Wow! There were 4 guys that went to the race. Tracy, Daniel, and Christian ran it, while Willie watched the kids and they all cheered them on. This race was official and Christian came in 14th place! Saturday he took Madeline to a birthday party and also had a Guy's Poker Night here after the kids went to bed. Busy! Sunday he took all the kids to his parents' house and then they went to see a play in Long Beach. I called him around 1PM to say that I was on my way home and he said that he didn't think they would be home by the time I was going to arrive. I said, "No problem!" and I came home to a quiet house and got a great nap before they all came home. On top of that, his parents took us to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner so nobody had to cook or do dishes... what a great ending to a great weekend!!
10-9-07: Update on the contest at Christian's work- He won 3rd place!! He will recieve his prize today. He had a choice of a Mont Blanc pen or a Sony digital camera. He chose the camera. Woo Hoo!! I'm so proud of him!
10-4-07: I leave tomorrow for women's retreat with our church. I always have so much fun at retreat! We will be going to Lake Arrowhead and staying in a retreat center/ cabin. I can't wait! There are 33 women going, lots of them are my good friends! It's nice to get away once in awhile, especially since I know that Christian is super capable of caring for our 3 kids. He has no problem at that. I know some dads wouldn't even think of it, but Christian, "Mr. Planner", has the whole weekend planned out. He feels if he keeps the kids really busy, they have fun, sleep well, and have less time to fight with eachother. Makes sense to me!
10/3/07: Two of my good friends from college just had babies in September. Karin and Brad were married in 2006 and Christie and Matt in 2004. Both couples have just been blessed with new baby boys! Click on the photos below to visit their websites:
10/3/07: Today when we dropped Emma off at preschool Landon again didn't want to leave. He loves all the toys (especially the cars and trains) that are in the room when we drop her off. As we were leaving and he was pouting, he looked up at me and said, "Then I tell SANTA I wanna a choo-choo!!" (in a tone intending to hurt my feelings). It was sooo funny. We haven't talked about Santa much at all to him. But, I guess he hears it when the girls tell us about all the things they want and we reply with, "Ohhh, You should tell Santa about that."
10/3/07: Yesterday when Madeline woke up she still had her bad cough. I asked her if she wanted to stay home from school. She said no, that she wanted to go to school. So, I gave her some Day Time Cold and Cough Medicine and took her to school. I got a phone call at 12:15 (during lunch recess) from Maddy's school. They said she came up to the office because she wasn't feeling that great. They said she wanted to talk to me. When they put her on the phone, I said, "Hi Baby, do want Mommy to come pick you up?" She replied, "No Mommy, but will you please come bring me my medicine and some more tissues for my pencil box, I used up all mine." Now is this a girl that loves school or what?? When I told Christian what had happened, he said, "She's not my kid!".
10/1/07: Christian's job is going really well! He has been at First American Equipment Finance for about a year and a half now and it's really starting to pick up for him there. He is in sales and has a base pay plus commission. The last couple months he has consistently been getting commission and he has a few "deals" in the works that are BIG ones! We keep praying that the companies he's working with will go through with their leasing plans and do business with Christian. It's exciting!
He has done so well this past month that he thinks he may have qualified for a sales contest. First place is a 42" plasma TV or a Dell laptop, 2nd place is a gym membership or a 10 speed bike, and 3rd place is a Sony camera or a Mont Blanc pen. He isn't positive if he placed, but he says there is even a possiblity he came in first place! They will announce the winners on Friday. Keep your fingers crossed! Sure would be fun to win. And it would be great for Christian to get that tangible reward for his hard work!! I'm so blessed to have a husband with a strong work ethic and determination to do a job well done. Go Christian!!
10-1-07: I can't believe we are already into the month of October! I'm 31 weeks today and little Ava is going to be here before we know it! I'm feeling quite a bit better than I was a couple of weeks ago. Thank God, because I don't think I could have endured 12 weeks in the condition I was in. But, now I feel pretty good and I can do this no problem for another 9 weeks (ONLY 9 weeks!!!!). Ahhh!!!
The kids all have colds. They are all congested and have coughs. Madeline's cough is really bad! We hear her all night long. They havn't missed any school over it yet, but I may have to keep Maddy home a day or 2 just to give her a good rest. We'll see how she's doing this afternoon and tomorrow. Hopefully she'll sound a little better- I'm keeping them loaded up with decongestant- poor babies! Luckily Christian and I haven't gotten it, let's pray we don't!
9/30/07: This has been a whirlwind of a week! On Monday night Christian's 90-year-old Grandma took a bad fall in the front yard of his parents' house. She hit her head which made her unconsious for awhile. Once she was checked out they determined she was OK, but badly bruised and shaken up. It was pretty scary for the entire family. "Nana" can't be left alone anymore. She has trouble getting around and she also has severe memory loss. This is the grandma that took care of Madeline as a baby while I taught 3 days a week for 2 years. She adores Maddy and Maddy adores her! She also helped out babysitting some after Emma was born, but her memory started to decline then and it was best for her not to care for the kids anymore. Her physical health was EXTRAORDINARY for an 80-year-old woman! It is hard to see her lose so much of her independence now as she has gotten older as she can't move as well as she used to.
After spending a couple hours with her on Monday, Christian offered that we take her for the following weekend to spend some time with her and lighten the load a bit for Nana's 3 daughters. Well, it turned into more than the weekend and we got her on Wednesday night. She LOVED being here with the kids and the kids all loved having her here. Landon loved the fact that Nana would sit with him on the sofa while he played cars next to her and on her legs. He also would joke with her that he was hurting her feet while she said "Ow!" over and over...Landon would laugh and laugh! When Nana would get up all three kids would jump up to ask, "Nana, do you need any help?" -even Landon! They were all sad to find out she was gone after 4 days of being here when we got home from church today. Christian took her back to his parents' house this morning. It was a difficult 3 days and 4 nights with her as she doesn't sleep well and her memory is failing, but I'm glad we had her over. I wish we would have taken some pictures of Nana with the kids, but Christian and I were very busy taking care of all 4 of them that we didn't have a moment to take out the camera. I especailly wished I had the camera when Emma and Nana were both getting "washed and styled" at the hair salon! Emma got a really cute haircut too!
Since I dated Christian he has always said that he wanted to take Nana to "La Vien Rose", a fine French restaurant in Brea. Every time we passed it, he would say, "Some day I'm gonna take my grandma to that restauraunt." Well, finally the day came. Friday night they both got dressed up and Christian borrowed Kyle's '69 Catalina again. Nana loved the car. Christian took Nana on a date just the two of them to dine at La Vien Rose. They had a very nice time together. I took a few pix of them before they left and he brought the camera along on their date. I'm sure he will remember the night forever!
9/21/07: I had given away almost all of our baby clothes to friends because Christian and I wern't sure if we were going to have any more babies after Landon and I was tired of packing up all the different sizes of boys and girls clothes and storing them in the garage! There was so much, it was overwhelming! I had no expectations of ever seeing them again. But, my friend Michele surprised me by giving back all of the baby girl clothes that we had given to her for her baby, Rachel. I have spent the last couple of days oohing, ahhing, and reminiscing about when Madeline and Emma were in these baby clothes. They are still in such good condition! It has been fun loading up Ava's drawers with all the pink pink pink! Ava's dresser is starting to get full of hand-me-downs from her big sisters. I have enjoyed looking at all the tiny stuff again!
9/18/07: I took Emma and Landon in for their immunizations and check-ups last Friday. Emma had a reaction to her MMR shot and had to go back to the doctor on Sunday afternoon. She had developed a hot, red, raised circle about 4 inches in circumfrence. On the help-line they said it could be infected, but when Christian brought her in, they said it was a normal reaction and have her take Benadryl. It's gone now, but it was a really strange reaction.
9/18/07: I'm feeling a lot better than I was last week, but still not great. This past weekend I tried to relax and stay off my feet as much as possible. I think that's why I'm feeling better now. It's not easy to take it easy though, so I hope I don't over-do it have the pain return soon.
Since we were going to stay home all day on Saturday Christian took advantage of it and decided to smoke a turkey. Smoking meat in the smoker is an all-day job! He tended to it while doing other outside chores (washing the cars, yardwork, mending Sadie's fence...) and we had a turkey dinner to show for his hard work. It was yummy and it also meant no cooking for me. Aside form taking Madeline to Libby Lu's for Miriam's party, I just folded laundry, took a nap, hung out in the backyard, and watched a couple DVD's. It was a super relaxing weekend!
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