Babies. I love babies, then again...

I have two wonderful sons. Beautiful sons. They make me laugh and at least one of them will make me head to the spot on the wall where I bang my head every day. I love the hugs, and playing UNO with them (and all the "sportsmanship" that comes with the game in this house), but I love babies.

When I was pregnant with Skywalker it was the worse experience ever. I had read the What to expect when you're expecting book, but too me, being pregnant at that time was one hurdle over another. Morning sickness subsided to be replaced by swollen legs, which was replaced by body aches... I hated being pregnant. Then to top it off, I ended up with toxemia and spent 2 weeks in the hospital, on magnesium sulfate (NASTY little bag of drugs) just to give birth prematurely and go through a new set of mind-boggling craziness and emotional rollercoasters.

A couple of years later I was told I couldn't have any more kids. Something about secondary infertility. The news were given to my by my fertility doctor after 3 tries of artificial insemination. We went to talk to a lawyer about the possibility of adopting. It was hard. I packed up all my baby things, you know, the ones that I had been saving for 4 years and took them to Goodwill. After I unloaded the car, I sat in the parking lot crying for about 20 minutes. I let go.

Two weeks later, I was pregnant with Mini-me. I swore right there and there that no matter what, I would ENJOY this pregnancy, because I knew that it would be my last. It was great. I was very high risk and even early in the process I told my OB that if something should happen, to make sure to to a tubal ligation. My body just could not handle another baby. He agreed. He admitted to not knowing how to talk to me about the need for such measures. Another baby would kill me. Mini-me was born full term and beautiful. I think that he is so much like me because he spent the entire time in there, with me being so positive about his development. He certainly took a better part of me with him.

But, there is the other part. Sunshine and I still feel that we are missing something in our family. The thought of a girl still becomes convesations amongst us. We know that we are now just trying to get over the huge unemployment, change of location, change of job, getting out of debt again, selling the house adventure, but we had set the goal of considering adoption once Mini-me became five. That milestone is this October.

Sunshine and I are believers that God will send blessings our way when we are ready for them. Mini-me was definitely the proof of that. Prior to the perfect timing of his coming, I wonder if our marriage would've survived him or if I would've appreciated him as much as I did.

Then, I also think about how we are past the baby stage. Our boys are potty trained. They sleep the entire night. They can walk. They can eat by themselves. They can entertain themselves. The challenges are different.

I sometimes babysit my 8 month old nephew and I am surprised about how hard it is. I believe that's how we continue as a species. Mothers forget how hard it is to take care of babies. We just see the cuteness and then, WHAM! you're hooked. I am glad that after a couple of hours, I can return my nephew to my brother.

I love babies, but they are exhausting.

Heaven - on a fork...

I absolutely LOVE seeing the recipes posted in all of your blogs! Love the decadent recipes from Not Your Average Soccer Mom, and the healthy yummy sounding stuff that Too Many Hats posts in her blog. Not to be left behind, I am including here THE BEST Tres Leches cake you will EVER have. Let me warn you though: This cake is SUPER easy to make, hard to put down once you start and will RUIN you for ever. When you try other Tres Leches recipes at the latin restaurant that you go to (you know, the one that you only go to because of the Tres Leches they serve) or the one that your great-aunt Gertrude finally gave you the recipe for after you had to relinquish all claims to her 3 strings of pearls... you know what I mean. And if you don't, try this cake. I dare you. 


P.S.: I refuse to be responsible for broken scales or marriages/relationships broken because your spouse or children TOUCHED your cake - or the fact that once you share this cake with your co-workers or friends, you will ALWAYS be assigned to bring this cake, which serves you right for sharing it in the first place.



Yield: 10 to 12 servings
Ingredients:
The Cake:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 cup all-purpose pour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

The Cream Filling:

• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

The Frosting:

• 1 cup whipping cream (or buy Cool Whip - one version is just sweeter than the other... can you guess which one we do in our home?)

Method:
The Cake:Preheat oven to 350ºF. Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites unti1 fluffy. Add the sugar gradually and mix well. Blend in the egg yolks, one at a time. Alternately blend in the milk, flour, and baking powder. Add the vanilla and blend well. Pour into a greased, square baking pan, and bake 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and pierce it with a fork, making little holes evenly over the surface. Set aside to cool. DON'T TAKE IT OUT OF THE PAN.
The Ice Cream Filling:
In a large bowl, mix condensed milk, evaporated milk, and vanilla extract until well blended. Slowly pour the mixture over the top of the cake. It will look like a lot, but believe me, it'll fit.
The Frosting:
Beat whipping cream until stiff. Spread over cake. Slather the delicious white goodness all over the top. Open top button of your jeans. Eat, then fast for 30 days or so. Repeat.

Twenty five years are heavier than you think...

Yesterday I did something I hadn’t done in a loooong time: clean my wallet. If your wallet is anything like mine, Mary Poppin’s traveling bag has nothing on us: we can pull ANYTHING out of there. Once in a while I throw away old crap to make sure I have space for all the new phone numbers, cards and information that I will never call or use. During the exercise in organization I happened to find an FYE gift card. I have no idea how it got there nor when it got there. Sunshine checked on the Internet and I had the original $25 still available on it. SCORE!

Later that evening, we decided to go celebrate my job offer after Church. We went to Chili’s and had an amazing time as a family. The kids didn’t know why we were there because until I see the offer and actually accept it, I don’t want to get them excited (in the case of Mini-me) or totally bummed out (in the case of Skywalker). God knows I can only go through that one time, so I am saving it for when it actually happens.

During the conversation, Skywalker, who was sitting next to me, started talking about how he could win a race between the two of us. Having just completed a 5K not that long ago, the competitive streak attacked our table. Sunshine agreed that I would smoke the kid… Skywalker did not appreciate the challenge and all of a sudden I was agreeing to a race with my NINE YEAR OLD.

We were to run down the street to my brother’s house, touch his mailbox and run back up the street to our house. First one to touch our mailbox wins the FYE card. From there on, there was nothing but smack talk between the two of us. “Skywalker, can you please go brush your teeth? You know, so they are nice and clean when I beat you in the race tomorrow!” and “Mom, do you know where my jacket is? It’s going to be sad seeing you cry at the finish line and I don’t want to get cold waiting for you to get over your defeat…” You know, loving words. Even Mini-me got in it saying that I would win the race and get the “gold necklace” and Skywalker would get the “Silver necklace” (where did he learn about that, I don’t know, since the airtime the Olympics received in our home this year is about the same as Ronco Steak Knives infomercials… None.). His loyalty touched me (suck on that one Sunshine).

We took a break for Sunday School but as soon as we got back in the car the talk continued.

At 11:30 we stood in front of our house. Mini-me took his position and after a couple of false starts, the race was one.

I don’t know if you know this, but a 9-year old runs fast. Even if he doesn’t participate in sports, he runs at recess every day and with his friends all the time. He is a cheetah, sprints quick fast in short distances, while I am more of a water buffalo (yes, I just compared myself to a massive cow) and can run longer. I discovered this too late.  There were a couple of times when I almost caught up, but when looking over his shoulders, he would see me and sprint again out of reach. The thoughts that went through my mind were not the ones of a loving mother, but the ones of a LOSING RUNNER. He beat me by about 10 feet. The irony of it was that he collapsed on the grass while I could’ve kept on running. Mini-me came running to me, jumping over his brother and declared me the Winner. Gotta love that kid!

When Skywalker caught his breath, he came over and put his hand on my shoulder, looked at me lovingly and said: “Where is my card?”

Now, there are a lot of things I can say here to excuse the fact that I lost, you know: the calf that received physical therapy this week, the lack of training time these last two weeks… you know, not excuses but REASONS. The reality is that he beat me fair and square. I went upstairs and got on the treadmill for the first time in two weeks. This is not over by far. You know that a re-match is coming. After all, second place is just the first loser.

Until then, you will now excuse me. I have a nine year old to take to the mall. 

Today doesn't seem so bad anymore!!!!

I

GOT

THE

JOB!!!

(Now we wait until the official offer letter to see what I'll get... *Fingers crossed*)

Dude, that’s what I get for eavesdropping…

So one of my current bosses just received a call to check references. I answered the phone and the Director of HR from the company I just interviewed with identified herself and laughed about me answering the phone. My boss, who happened to be getting ready to leave the office found himself almost tackled in the hallway when he almost left the office as the phone rang. Needless to say, he took the call (I think I saw a little fear in his eyes when I jumped off my seat to stop him). Since his office is right next to mine, I could hear what he was saying. At the beginning of the conversation I heard him say (jokingly, thank goodness): “If I say she sucks, will you not hire her so she can stay?” I choked on the orange I was eating. I heard a lot of mumbling but whatever I caught seemed positive.

As he was talking, another one of my references (who was THRILLED when I asked him if he could give me a reference if he got called) walked up  to my desk in a foul mood. It seems that there had been a breach of confidence in his area and since his support staff denied having any involvement, he came to see if I knew anything about it (read: If I had said something). Now, there are two things I professionally pride myself with: my organizational skills (I am terribly type A – hence the whole being on time thing) and my ability to keep a confidence (does blabbing about it in my blog count??). Even my bosses have always commented on how things never leave this area. So after I denied knowing anything, which was true but I thought that if I defended my inocence too much would seem like I was denying a guilty action, my prior boss walked away- fuming.

By this time, the reference call wrapped up and my current boss walked out and said: “Well, I didn’t tell her that you walk on water, but I was pretty close to it!” Then he left for his meeting.

The other assistant called me and was complaining about getting raked over the coals by her boss. She denied all accusations (there were three) and was very angry. Her other line rang and I saw that it was HR Director (we can see each other’s lines). I hung up so she could pick up the call and ran like a mad woman to her area. She put the call through to prior-boss's office (he was in a meeting but was expecting the call) and I went and like an idiot, pressed my head against the door.

Ten seconds into the call, the door opened and I almost had a heart attack right there and then, almost making the call useless since I can’t work if I am DEAD. It was the employee he was meeting with, who was coming out  of the office to give him some privacy. She laughed when she saw me and closed the door quickly so he couldn’t see me (BLESS HER!). Then, moved out of the way so I could resume my position of shame.

Then I heard it… although I am good “I am overqualified for this position…” “She has a master’s degree…” “I heard her boss say that sometimes she can’t anticipate his needs. Like this time that a presentation needed to be done and he had to ask about it.”

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???? I hate when people make assumptions about my life. Who cares if I am overqualified! I ASKED for the job! I decided I wanted it!!! I LOVE the company, and there are very few things I wouldn’t do to to work there! Especially if it means getting a foot in the door. I ALMOST barged in to say: WHAT PRESENTATION ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Do you mean the presentations that YOU were responsible for and that I had to go behind your back to talk to your staff and harass them to get it done and then you took the credit for it being complete (you know, when you walked into the meeting and asked me, with that terrified look on your face, if I had them and then said “thank you” when our boss told YOU “Good work”???) Or the one that was your responsibility and I had to dump my kids at my parents' house (Sunshine was out of town) to come and help Big Boss with it and was here until 9 pm with him and received a hand-written thank you card from him at my house?

(DEEP BREATH….) Sorry I went manic on you there. I, of course, did not do barge in or yell or any such thing. I walked away from the door. Added this to the list of things to talk about during my exit interview and continued to work.

Fifteen minutes later (this is just too weird and good for me to make it up) the other assistant came by my desk. It turns out that out of the three things I was accused asked about, 2 were her fault. The other one was someone else's fault.

Niiiiiiiice…..

And now, I am going to walk away and get something for lunch. I hear that there is Cherry Cheesecake in the cafeteria today and I am armed with a spoon… I will park myself at my desk and not listen to any more conversations…. Ever… OK, at least until next time…

I need a nap, and after reading this, so will you.

This has been an interesting week… Sorry I have been so out of touch. I swear I am at least reading blogs, but I have been so busy and tired that there are a very few coherent thoughts in my mind lately. If you REALLY want to know why, go ahead and keep reading, but make sure that you have your tennis shoes on (so you can keep up) and a refreshing drink (so you can catch your breath with it afterwards!) Here we go!

On Monday I went to two interviews. I packed up the kids to school and drove 2 and a half hours for my first appointment. The person I was going to meet with was late. Now, that is one of my pet peeves (I have a list). If you make an appointment with me, BE ON TIME – especially if I was able to make it on time, from 96 miles away after taking care of two kids… Then she proceeded to let me know that she is a workaholic. She has no children, no husband, works all the time. Will I be able to work late and even Saturdays? In the spirit of the interview, I told her that if she lets me know ahead of time I could probably figure something out. Then she asked me how many times have I been absent from my current job in the last 6 to 12 months. (just when I had surgery and I had enough vacation days and worked from home when I could). THEN, she asked me if I was able to work with minorities… I guess she missed LOOKING at me, since I am Hispanic. To make it, Oh, so much better, she then told me that the office is currently staffed by a group of passive aggressive people and that I would have to deal with a whole bunch of drama. GEEZ, LADY! Why didn’t you post all this in the ad? Where do I sign???

My second interview was with a large company. I interviewed with the Director of Human Resources. I liked her, she liked me. We talked about coming back later on in the week for me to meet with the hiring manager and a group of staff.

Then, I ran to my car and drove 2 and a half hours back to pick up the kids, do dinner, homework and put them to bed. When I settled down to bed and turned on the TV, there it was, scrolling on the bottom of the screen: School had been cancelled the next day. Kids will attend on Saturday. Dang! I called my dad, he said to bring the kids over the next day.

After dropping off the boys at my parents’ the next day, I made it to work and made up the work from the day before and whatever was popping up. It started to snow outside pretty hard, so at about mid-afternoon, my dad called me at work and told me that if I wanted the pick up the kids, I needed to come right away because his street was freezing. After considering it for about 20 minutes, I begged for the mercy of my boss and asked him if I could leave early… to go home with two kids… with nothing to do outside… and a non-working PS3. I ended up spending almost 2 hours with the PS3 support team to get the stupid thing to work. By the time I could use it, it was too late. I had to cook dinner and get the kids ready for bed. Right when I was pulling hot pasta off the strainer, my cell phone rang. I saw that it was an out-of-town number. The HR Director was on the line and wanted to know if I could come in the next day at 3pm for that second interview she told me about. I looked out the window at the 6 inches of snow (and still falling). Sure! I said.

You know what happened next: I called my parents in a frantic state. Don’t worry, we’ll take care of the kids at the end of the day. Then, TEN SECONDS later, my cell dings with a text: SCHOOL FOR TOMORROW HAS BEEN CANCELLED PARENTS! YOU CAN START CHAINING YOURSELVES TO THE WALL. WE LOVE YOU! (end of message). I thought I would cry.

The next morning, I had to get up at 5:30 am to take a shower (I had somehow forgotten the night before) and get the kids ready to take them to my parents’ again (the boys were over it and not amused – the love the grandparents, but it is BORING there!). Mini-me decided that the best way to pass time was to be a pain in the ass to his brother. I ran away before my dad could realize this and went to work. I again caught up with all the work that people in areas where it doesn’t snow (what the hell people, don’t you know better?)had emailed me and left me voice mails about. Again, I had to do a puppy face and leave work early for a 2 hour drive, with no lunch, to a second interview. It’s a good thing that they like me around here. I went, I interviewed and I think it went well. I left the interview and then drove 2 hours back and picked up the kids. Thankfully, my parents had already fed them, so off to bed they went.

I figured that I had spent my 3-week gas allowance in 3 days. My carbon footprint this week is so big, I will need to plant a small forest to make up for it.

You would think that it would be worth it for the kids, right? RIGHT? No. Skywalker told me that he is in NO hurry to leave and then Mini-me told me this morning that he had ran out of big kisses, he only had 100 medium-sized kisses and little ones, so to choose carefully when asking for a “Morning” kiss.

I just realized I still have one more day before Sunshine comes home… I am off to hide under my desk and take a nap. Thanks.

P.S. Did I mention that all that driving did a number on my calf (the sore one I ignored and ran a 5K with)? I couldn’t walk for 2 days. My PT friends took pity on me today and massaged it- nothing like intense pain to get over pain; but at least I can walk now.

How is YOUR week so far?

Camera Dump!

I am home early from work today and realized that I had taken some images that I wanted to share but never got to do it... Here you go!

Two weeks ago, a lot of the snow was melting...

It was a GLORIOUS DAY!

We went hiking and found a stream where we let the boys be boys.... 

My number at the 5K:

The boys waiting for me to get to the finish line...

What a wonderful time... Sunny and warm. Maybe Spring had sprung??

Maybe not, here is the view out of my home office window... 20 minutes and one inch ago... Total accumulation so far: 5 inches and 2 cabin fevered boys.