Hurray!

We arrived in Singapore last night pretty late after 22 hours of flying and 30 total travel. It was so good to get to my parents house. It is pretty nice here, very humid, but nice and cool in the house. We are very excited about our time here and although we are tired, we are ready to adventure! We will keep you updated.

Thanksgiving

We had our family, Carlos's whole family and his cousins, the Leal's (minus a few) at our house for Thanksgiving and it was a lot of fun. We decided to take a family photo of all of us and a few of them turned out pretty good. As usual, Miriam wouldn't smile and the more people tried to get her to the more frustrated she got and resited. We took a lot, and finaly decided to have a funny photo and this is how it turned out. I think it was the best one. HEHEHE

Grandmommy

These last few months the whole family has been talking about ways to have Grandmommy in a safe place that is close to her children and it has been kind frustrating getting her to understand and agree. However, recently an opportunity presented itself, with great prospects, in Santa Barbara, CA with Uncle Bob and Aunt Suzan. It may or may not happen. I think it would be a great move, and maybe that is what sparked these thoughts. I started thinking about the fact that she has been there with my family for my whole life or at least as far as I can remember. Even after I left for college or got married, I knew that whenever I came home, she would be there. When I would leave I would cry because I couldn't be with her for a while. And not until now did I realize that if she moved, she wouldn't be there when I went 'home'. And that thought made me sad, I have gotten so used to her being there that if she wasn't, I don't know how I would feel about that. However, I also want her to be safe and happy and this move sounds like it would be a great thing. I hope it works out, even if it means I wouldn't see my Grandmommy as often. We can still talk on the phone!! I love you so very much GG!!

Park fun!

Race pictures

Dogs...

Ok I know there are a LOT of people who love dogs. I am not one of them. I never had one growing up, I had a lot of friends with them and I didn't mind them as long as they didn't chew on my stuff or try to lick my face! I don't mind dogs, in fact there have been many that I love! However, the exception to loving a dog stops when it comes to a pitbull! When we moved in to our new house, our next door neighbor had 3 dogs, 2 of which were pitbulls. They were ok except that anytime they saw you they would bark, they would bark and night and even fight! The sound of two pitbulls fighting is the most awful sound I think I have ever heard!! I was afraid of them, they were in a 'cage', however that didn't stop me from worrying every time I took the girls out that MAYBE they would be loose! About a month and a half ago those neighbors moved! I was counting my blessings, and felt better about letting the girls play outside... That is until two days ago when I noticed that the house on the corner of my cul-de-sac built a small chain link 'cage' in their unfenced back yard and in it they put two pitbulls!!!!!!!!!!! ARG!!!! What is it with people and dangerous dogs. Why do you want a dog that can kill you and kill other people??
Yesterday when I went to get Carlos from the bus, I noticed the middle school aged son of the neighbors, standing in front of the dogs with the door open just watching them, probably feeding them...I have not noticed if they are chained as well, but hoped they were because they could have run away easily and there would have been nothing for him to do about it! Anyway, maybe I am just afraid...or maybe there is some legitimacy to my frustration! I mean what kind of dog do you usually hear attacking little children!?!?! Scary!

I made it!

Well we ran the 8K! I AGAIN forgot my camera so Carlos couldn't take pictures of me and my friend, Kim running! DARN!!!! Anyway, it was fun and for not training, we finished in about 57 min! Not bad!
The marathon runners started an half hour before us. Just as we were leaving we pulled our car out and heard all these police cars, and the lead car for the marathon! The first finisher was getting ready to cross the finish line! 2hours and 20 min I think would have been the finish time!! 26 miles UNBELIEVABLE! I don't think I will ever do that! 10K is my max! Anyway, I had fun and feel good!

Let the festivities begin!

Today our journey to Singapore began with all of us getting immunization shots! We got the flu and the Hep A. We were going to also get the typhoid, however the Dr at Patient First told us we didn't need it so....we are on our way!
Miriam had a really hard time with it and was nervous from the time we said 'we need to get shots!' She screamed and was tense and then she looked at the syringe and that was it, she went flying off my lap and it took Carlos and I to hold her...but wait there is more..that was just for the flu...then we went to get the Hep A. They don't do that one in the arm so she had to lay down and have it in her leg! That was even worse, it took like 3 nurses and me and Carlos to keep her still enough to get the shot!! Wow!
Elaine was pretty nervous but was calm and cried only when the needle went in and then she was totally fine! The second time however she struggled! She HATES being held down. I think she would have stayed still had they given us the chance to talk to her about it. She understands the "do you want us to do it the hard way, or are you going to stay still?" What a trooper!
Anyway, we all got them and so far, we are all well! :)
Again, I was going to take some pictures to start our memories...but forgot!

Being involved!

This year, Carlos joined the Republican party of Henrico County. He has a desire to be more involved in politics and would someday like to run for an office. So for this past election he has tried to be invloved in helping the candidates win. We went to rallys, partys, and stood out in front of polling places to pass out flyers and encourage a vote! A photographer from Reuters, was snaping tons of pictures of Elaine at the rally. Then last night we went to the 'victory party' for Senator George Allen, and Congressman Eric Cantor. There was so much press there, I don't know that I expected it to be that way, and we were interviewed by two papers, including the Washington Post! We shook hands with Senetor John Warner. It was neat, however, we are so forgetful in all of our excitment and didn't bring our camera to ONE thing!!! We are going to search the websites and email camramen who took our picture and see if we can get some of them posted on the blog here!
We stayed until 10:30pm last night, and decided to go home. We missed hearing again from Senator Allen. It looks like he won't win but it was neat to be involved, and I am sure we will be involved in the future.

Halloween Pictures

I forgot to take pictures on Halloween night but our friends did, so here are some of the best. We have the girls and then the trick-or-treating gang! (Marlon, Carlos, Miriam, Elaine, Patrick Acosta, and Madeline)

It finally happened!

Elaine is very silly and wacky and loves to jump and run and yell. She has fallen and bumped her head more times than I can count! But she has never really 'hurt' herself. I knew someday it would catch up with her! Yesterday she was jumping on the couch and fell off on to her side. When she started crying, we hugged her and treated the bump on her head. We didn't think about anything else, until last night when Carlos picked her up out of the car and she said OW, and cried a little. Then it hit me...what if she broken her arm!?!?! So Daddy gave her a blessing, we gave her some tylenol and put her to bed. This morning it was swollen on the left side more than the right so I took her to the Dr. and....she broke her collar bone! I guess they don't do much for that sort of thing just try to keep it imobilized. So for the next week or so we are going to TRY to take it easy. Of course it does hurt her pretty bad, so I don't see her having a problem with that for now. Poor baby!!
I was pretty scared last night but after the blessing and I saw that she was ok sleeping, I felt better. When the PA told me what it was, I was just a confirmation of what I had thought. And I was glad she didn't need any surgery! Unfortunatly I know this won't really stop her from being rowdy in the future! I don't think she really understands what is wrong, even though she will say "I broke my collar bone!"

No costume...

Well all Halloween festivities are over! We had fun! Carlos had a bake sale at work so I made him an eyeball cake and it sold for $12! Yeah! We had our friends, the Acosta's, and Sarah and Marlon over last night. We ate dinner, then the 'boys' took the little girls out trick-or-treating, while we women stayed home and talked and passed out candy. A lot of people didn't have costumes on, they were just going around getting candy! Sarah had the idea of putting up a sign that said "No costume, No Candy!" That would have been funny! LOL The girls had a lot of fun but stayed out too late, wanted to eat thier candy and we wouldn't let them, which led to a lot of kicking and screaming! (which actually is a regular occurance now for Elaine!) But after a lot of struggle, and then some calming down and love, they went to bed.
One good thing might come out of Halloween being over...maybe Miriam won't be afraid of all empty rooms and dark spaces and actually be able to spend her day without being right by my side!

Time Flys!

Today marks the fourth year since we have lived in Virginia! The longer we are here, the more I love it and the less I want to or can think of moving elsewhere! We were never sure where we were going to live for 'the rest of our lives', in fact, we were and still are pretty sure that we will be moving someday. The more settled we become the farther and farther away that 'someday' seems. But for now we are here and we love it!!!