cuffsandstitches

2009-03-27T22:27:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite pics. Here is the trivia of the day. When Anyla was born, she was assigned the apgars of 1 and 9. My current manager ( not my manager at that time), was the one who performed cpr on Anyla. I thank God for blessing us, every single day.

2009-03-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

I am having a hard time keeping up with the blog. I was just laughing with a cooworker who has internet on her phone. Every 30 minutes she would check her facebook profile. i told her she needs to go to internet addicts anonomous. lol
Anyla is growing up so fast. It seems like she was a baby yesterday, and now she has her own opinion (and not afraid to state it). Her newest dream is ballet. Her teze Linda (auntie) got her a tutu and ballet shoes. Anyla looks beautiful. My little ballerina. I have a picture on my phone, so as soon as i download it I will post it.
I promissed her a cinderella cake for her b-day ( hope it will look somewhat decent). every morning she wakes up asking if her birthday has arrived. lol
I have worked 120 hours for the last two weeks, havent really had much free time. I was scheduled to work this upcomming saturday, then Drew told me about his aunts anniversary party. The only way i could have saturday off, was if i worked the night shift last night, so I did. I took care of preterm Nicu babies. One of them was really fussy, and would only calm down if I rocked her on my shoulders. That was tough (since I had so much to do). I told Drew, I am very happy Anyla is past that stage.
By the way, this month is 5 years of me becomming a US citizen. It is a special memory for me.

Zach is getting closer to graduating every day. The prom is in april. I sent some phone pics to people i have registered on the phone. He is so handsome.

Drew was so nice to me today. He drove me around, helping me deliver the orders that came in.
If you want to see my little bussiness check www.scentsy.com/nitap

My cousin emailed me from Pristina Kosova. His second daughter was just born 2 days ago. My other cousin just had her first baby. This is the hardest part of living so far from the extended family. Not being able to be there for these special occasions.
Well, I am going to bed. I really hope I will have the time to at least post things once a week.
wish me luck.

Special day

2009-02-27T15:50:00.000-08:00

Today is a special day, Zach is turning 18, and we are so proud of him. He has grown up to be a responsible and purpose driven young adult. ( ok so he still has some teenager hormones in him, lol),

Happy B-day Zachary

keep Zach in your prayers as he ventures on new life adventures as a young adult. please remember to plan to come to his high school graduation in May, if all possible

2008-12-12T20:42:00.000-08:00

So Drew and I went to the dentist last week. we decided to use up some of the dental benefits we have before they expire. Well, what was supposed to be a short cleaning visit, ended up being a 5 hour visit, where both Drew and I had deep cleaning to one side of the mouth, Drew had multiple fills and passed out during the procedure. He woke up to a sternal rub, and they never bothered to let me know ( i was sitting next door). I got lucky to get a root cannal. Yeay
Somehow we decided to wake up this am and go back to the dentist ( dummies right?). we had more work done, ( i got lucky and avoided two root cannals).
then we went to the front and got to see the bill,... needles to say i was glad I received some "happy gas" earlier, just wished it didn't ware off so quick. lol

2008-12-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

Anyla and I went to Highland village mall, for the christmass tree lighting ceremony. There we came across some of my coworkers and their kids, and really had fun. Anyla got to sit on Santas lap, ( not too happy about it) and we got to ride on a horse and carriage ride. here are some pics...

Cisco and Anyla are best friends at daycare and lots of playdates, so they were willing to sit on santas lap together. it was cute. they were supposed to tell santa what they want for christmass. cisco did not have a problem talking to him, but Anyla went numb. after she was done, she told me she would tell " daddy santa, what she wanted" lol.

2008-12-12T19:52:00.000-08:00

and after a month of running around trying to get things done, (as always some done, and some still to be done), i finally sat down and oppened my blog. well a lot has been going on: zach had some amazing games, bulls made it to quarterfinals. we got to go visit kriss, kelli and kyler for the weekend, went shopping and brothers got to visit and catch up.

Zach played very hard the game against liberty hill which has won 39 consecutive games and the last 2 championships.

here is a pic of zach after the game

well let me tell you about the senior year: on top of senior driving, so count insurance, vehicle and gas to the equation, you have senior dues, senior photos, football jersey, letterman patches, a christmass wish, spending money, money for prom.......a lot of things to look forward too...lol

so after we sat and talked about the joy of spending on your kids, we decided we are going to consider giving anyla a sibling. crazy a?

2008-11-02T14:58:00.000-08:00

Zach is doing great on every aspect. He brought home a very impressive report card. I was amazed. His football season is getting better by the day. Nine games now and still undefeated. I placed a picture of the score board from the last game. Grandpa Martin and grandma Lisa made it to the last two games. There are a lot of fire dept volunteers that come to the game specifically to support Zach. I think we determined I am the loudest from the group, but hey at least i exercise my vocal cords. lol

Next week Zach's team plays their rival Decatur High School. It is a historical game called "Battle of the Big Sandy", referring to the sandy river area dividing the two cities. Historically Decatur has won a majority of these games. Since this has gone on for decades, the game brings alumni from all over the nation, for both teams. It is also the last District game and Senior night. You think they will feel a little pressure? Undefeated,big rivalry, family and friends coming to see you on Senior Night!!!

It is fun to see him do so great. He plans on enlisting in the Marines after graduation. This year is going by, quite fast to say the least.

We went to the hospital for trick or treating a week ahead of actual Halloween. it was fun. our little Tinkerbell, captured the show. we actually ended up with two Halloween costumes this year. Aunt Linda got her an Elmo outfit the same time grandma Lisa got her the Tinkerbell dress.

so we decided we would dress appropriate for the weather. it was quite warm that day so tinkerbell was the winner. There was lots of different community groups that had come together for trick or treating. She got lots of coloring books, crayons, and candy. there was one bag she received that had graham crackers, peanut butter and an apple.

it was fun and safe ( plus it did not drag on forever). Zach helped her place two pumpkin stick on tattoes on each arm. I regret i did not get a picture of that.

His football season seems to be getting better by the day. 9 games now and still undefeated.

2008-10-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

Some pics we took, at the marina

Vacation time

2008-10-09T14:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Anyla and I decided to go visit the USS Lexington Museum. It was amazing. We spent most of the day on the ship, and still left without seeing everything. Anyla was especially amazed by anything that had a steering wheel.

She looks at me and says" mommy where's the (steering) wheel?", i told her they dint use one for the jets, so she said she is going to find a tractor then ( they had one on display). Is it not amazing how young kids think? I just love her replies, to most common things.

We even got to see a short show, where a pilot describes the extensive training they have to go through to prepare. From that point on, all of our forks at the dinner table are jets, and they brake and get fixed over and over. Apparently she enjoyed the show. when we got home, she told her daddy she saw a movie about the jets, and they were fast, big and loud. She also told her daddy the colors of the American flag. I was quite proud of her.

A little trivia we learned on the ship: Lexington has no stairs, however it has many many ladders.

In the evening we took a nice walk by the marina. We could see fish jumping from the water. it is very relaxing to just sit and watch the ocean.

Vacation time

2008-10-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I have no idea when i will get to post again once i go back to my every day life so i am trying to catch up before we leave. lol. Anyla and I have done smething different every day of the week. We arrived at the hotel, late sunday night. Anyla slept most of the trip, so once we got here she wanted to go swimming. That did not happen. We were tired.

Monday, once Drew got up and went to class ( a little after 7 am), we got up, and went down for breakfast. They made fresh omlet, with your desired ingridients, along with potato wedges, bacon/saussage, different kinds of cereal/oatmeal, and the fresh fruitt table. fruitt was very tasty( organic-pointed out), and they had a variety. After we ate, I got the bill and was quite amazed. It was 17 dollars for the breakfast bar, however kids ate for free. Well we enjoyed it.

After that we went to the pool. They have an outside/inside pool and a hot tub. It was a little windy, so i convinced Anyla to go to the inside pool. I was still a little chilly, so we went to the hot tub, or as Anyla called it " the hot pool". that was ok for a little while, but then she wanted to go to the wider pool, so i took a deep breath and went in with her. It wasnt that bad, once you were in the water. That is where we spent most of our day. We went and got some snacks at the store as well, so we have snacked a lot the entire trip.

Once drew came back from class, we convinced him to go with us to the pool. That was fun. I wanted to try the dry sauna, since i have never been inside one before. once we got in and closed the door, Anyla looks around, turns to drew and says " daddy what's cooking?", we started laughing and Drew replies " we are cooking.", Anyla looks at him and says " daddy, we are not cooking". She did not enjoy the sauna. did not want anything to do with it. On the other hand, she was shivering but did not want to get out of the pool. I think its pretty safe to say she is a water person.

2008-10-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

so we decided to get some bulls shirts to show our support during the football game. it was very hard to find a shirt for Anyla so we made her one. she loves the shirt. we also got her some pom-poms, so she could cheer. between watching the game and zach really kicking some butt out there, and anyla trying to do what the cheerleaders were doing, the night was very entertaining. lol

here is an awesome picture of zach,and our little cheerleader

p.s. zach is a starter for the tackle position on the defense team and also plays for the special team on the offense. ( i hope i said all that right)

2008-10-07T14:30:00.000-07:00

Lisa and Kemmel made it to zach's game as well. It was very fun. It was a very close game, both teams were very strong, and until the last 25 seconds, they had a tie. Our team had a touch down the last 15 seconds of the game. Yeay bulls

2008-10-07T14:16:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, it has been a while since i last had time to get on the blog site. i am actually in Corpus Christi, enjoying a short vacation( along with Anyla), while Drew is attending some Police classes. Zach had to go to school so he stayed at home. I think he actually enjoyed the idea of having the house to himself.

I am going to start with Zach's football games, since last time i had no pics to show. Well I am very proud to anounce that The "Bulls" ( Zach's team), have been undefeated for the season. I have made it to two games so far, and I got to tell you it gets really tense out there. we all get laryngitis by the next day. LOL

Here are some pictures of him and his team> He is number 52, and is a great asset to the team

2008-09-16T22:34:00.000-07:00

This was a bussy week for us

2008-09-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, it has been two weeks now and very eventful weeks may i add. Lets start with the youngest.
Anyla is doing great. she is learning so fast, i am having a hard time keeping up with her. today she told me not to cry as she was leaving for work: " don't cry mommy, i got to go to work, to take care of babies"...lol, that is what i tell her when i leave her at daycare. Apparently she has logged it in her memory.he received several beautiful hand made bows from aunt Anna the other day. she loves them, she wants to hold them all the time, but I have not convinced her yet to actually put them on her hair. go figure... Thanks Anna, they are really beautiful....
As far as Zach, he has driven back and forth to school every day this week. getting lots of practice in. He also went and filled all our vehicles with gas, and ran them through the car wash. I am really loving the idea of him driving. It gets better everyday. His football team has won every game so far. we are really wishing for his team to win most if not all games this year. that would really be a great thing...I have had to work every Friday this month, so i don't have any pictures of him during the game yet... i promise to get some online soon.
Drew is down in Houston/ Galveston area this week. He joined a group contracting through FEMA, to help out, and have a little adventure. He is born for things like this. It was really great to see how excited he got, when the opportunity came up. He just loves a good challenge. Billy P. is down there with him as well, and ...well, lets just say, when you get these two together, they always end up having a very exciting event...lol. Luckily for Drew, phones and Internet services are not down, so we have stayed in touch. And of course I don't think Drew could survive very long without Internet...Cant wait to hear all the exciting stories, and pictures he sends down.
love you babe, be careful...
As far as I am concerned, well I am doing much better tonight that i did last night. To start from the beginning, I have been having flank pain all weekend. I also have a recurrent history of kidney stones. So come Monday i was feeling worse rather than better,and was quite sure that i was having an obstruction from the stone. So I contacted my OB (just to start with, since i never really took the time to find a urologist and do follow ups), did a dipstick, which showed everything i expected. we decided to go ahead a do a bilateral renal US. to make the long story short...the radiologist contacted my OB, and gave a verbal report ( this is all after business hours 1830) stating he was very concerned (this is second hand, from my ob to me) showing "the medulla of the kidney had calcified, kidneys had atrophied meaning they look much older than they should look, and possibly something more going on..blla, blla, blla"...in short implying she was very concerned there could be tumor or even something more serious going on...well it took about an hour for me to actually process the entire conversation I had with her, and now I had a billion and one questions and no one to ask....SO needless to say I barely slept all night, and neither did Drew. .. This morning I contacted a nephrologist's office and had them review the report, and also got a copy for myself from medical records. Most of the terms my OB used last night were not anywhere on the report. luckily i also had some labs drawn back in may, so we checked the creatinine level there (just fine as well), so after about 18 hours of cluster and stress and high emotion, the nephrologist put my mind at ease. I still have some issues with the kidneys, I still produce kidney stones, and per nephrologist I MAY have a condition called medullary sponge kidney, which is something you are born with...and i can deal with all that.
I actually feel like I was just given a miracle. I never really thought about how people feel, what goes through their mind if they were to receive devastating news like that. i do not wish anyone to have to go through that. I was reminded to appreciate little things in life...
I have a limited amount of pictures stored on my computer, so i am going to post one of my little sunshine,and promise to add to the collection later.
its getting late so I am gonna catch some zzz's. Good night everyone. God Bless

2008-09-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

Well bubba's team won. yea... i did not realize how great it can be to have a teenager that can drive. Zach just went to the store to get some things we need. and i didn't have to get dressed and drive. wow, pretty cool...

so i decided to use the little extra time, to put a new post...

so i come home last night, and Anyla was excited, so of course she didn't want to leave my sight. I had missed her too, so i enjoyed the re bonding experience. we enjoyed the evening, had some sushi for dinner, miso soup and soy beans for Anyla (that is her favorite)

and than we let coco in (Anyla's newest puppy). we gave puppy some water to drink, since she seemed thirsty,and Anyla was very determined that she wanted some water in the bowl as well...this is what she did with the water...lol

than we went laid down to go to sleep, well that is when Anyla started saying her ear hurts. First we thought she is just playing around, trying to avoid going to sleep, but she kept stating her ear hurts, and within 10-15 minutes, started crying in pain. it started just like that. granted she has been coughing for few days, and had some nasal drainage, but never once said anything about her ear till then. well needless to say, ear drops, cotton ball, Tylenol and rocking chair did the job. Drew and I stayed up till 2 am. So even though Drew told me to go to bed, so i could work today, i just couldn't let my baby be in pain and not be involved. so no work for mommy today. i shall just pick up a day this week.

Anyla slept in till 9 am, and now is playing with her dolls. still runny nose and cough, but no ear pain. She even told me "my ear is all better mommy, no hurt pain" lol

Poor teze Linda was really loooking forward to visiting with Anyla all day today. I guess we will reschedule. xoxo

2008-09-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

So Anyla and daddy went to see bubba's (Zach's) football game. I had to work, boohoo. Grandma and papa are also there. I tried to get Anyla on the phone after I got off work, but she was having so much fun, she didnt want to talk much.
Let's hope Zach's team wins. They work hard and deserve it.

2008-09-01T12:45:00.000-07:00

my sisters and my friends

2008-09-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

Jeta and Blake during a visit. Isnt it fun to see siblings have fun together.

2008-09-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

When Jeta and Linda came to USA, Billy and Louann made sure the girls experienced the southern style of living.

some pics

2008-09-01T12:22:00.001-07:00

I think this is a picture of the family at Anna's and Charlie's house. If i am not mistaken, it was taken on dad Martins surprise b-day party

and of course a picture from our special day

2008-09-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, we thought we could join the group, since it does seem as a good way of staying in touch.

Cannot promise to always keep it updated, but I promise to try as much as time allows. ...

And of course, they are mainly the topic of our blog...fun and busy....

Zach just got his drivers license and bought a truck. He is so proud of his independence, and we are too. Even though it is very hard to just watch him leave the house, and get on his truck all by himself...He has done great so far, has made several trips all by himself. Hooray for Zach