Thursday, February 24, 2011

Finding Our Roots

Since 2008, about a year after Luis and I were married, I started to get serious about keeping good records of our history for our future children.  It has been such a joy hearing old stories from relatives and finding documentation on my family's past.  My father had 15 brothers and sisters so gathering information for that side of the family has been quite a challenge.  Luckily, his family meets every year for a family reunion so a majority of the work has already been done and I've been able to locate tons of additional info from these events.  I still have a lot of missing pieces but it takes a long time to research genealogy records. 

Howard Family Reunion 2009

Even thought my side of the family tree is mostly completed for the past six generations or so, Luis father's side of the family was empty.  A blank slate that needed to be filled in.  Through lots of harassing of family members and a little help from Facebook we were able to finally locate Luis' Aunt in New Jersey.  This was the next best thing to finding his father, who unfortunately died when he was about 8 years old.  Just a month after they talked on the phone we all met in Florida for the first time.  It was a great feeling to find the missing part of our completed family tree.

Luis seeing his father's picture for the first time

Luis' Dad's Family - The Pagan Family

The Pagan Family in Spring Hill, FL

I think it is important for us as parents to share our family history with our children.  Knowing where you came from helps you to know where you are going in my opinion.  In the past three years I have been able to complete our family tree and I can not wait to display it proudly in our next home.  I am still gathering official certificates to confirm dates and other specifics but it's a great feeling to have a name for every relative.


If you're interested in viewing our family tree, or would like to start your own family search I highly recommend Tribal Pages.  They offer a free site that is very user-friendly.  I also have gathered information from Ancestry, but I choose not to pay for the service since I can not spend a lot of time all the time on my research.  Happy hunting friends!

Trying Something New

I do not like vegetables with the exception of green beans, only out of a can, not fresh, and corn.  [I know potatoes are vegetables but everyone likes potatoes so I don't really count them]  I always get teased because I can eat green beans with every meal and be perfectly content, however, there are some *cough* (Luis) who like variety in their meals.  I can't help that I am just like my father; we like what we like.

Dad and I circa 1984

However, in the past year or so I have tried to be more open to trying vegetables of other sorts.  So, I've made Luis asparagus; it tasted too green, and broccoli; hated it, can't even stand the smell of it.  Tonight I tried again, but this time with Squash.  I found a recipe that used peaches and coconut when you cook it so I thought that might help disguise the vegetableness of it.


Low and behold, it wasn't too bad.  I won't say it's something I would enjoy with every meal like my staple veggie, green beans, but I will probably make it again.  Luis would be so proud of me.  Who knows what I might try next!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The Joys of Having Your Child in Daycare...

Today was our typical Tuesday.  Gabe and I get up, get dressed, brush our teeth and head to a local church for his part-time daycare.  He loves going there; I can't get in the room and get his coat off fast enough.  As I sign him in he always says: "Mommy, go in there!"  It's quite adorable.  In the past month that he's been attending "school" he's been sent home twice.  The first time was a bad coughing spell turned throw-up (which he does quite frequently, actually.  Fun huh?) and the second, today, was for ringworm.  Ringworm, how random is that?

I happen to be getting my hair done when the school called me.  Those of you who truly know me, know I change my hair color like I change clothes.  This time it's dark red, the first step towards my natural blonde color.  We'll see how long this trend lasts because I really like the black hair, even though it's really hard to get out if you change your mind.


So, back to the ringworm... The first call I got was the director letting me know they were undecided if he was bitten by another kid or if he did in-fact have ringworm.  They were going to let the nurse look at it and get back to me.  Twenty minutes later, verdict was in: ringworm.  My poor sweet boy was quarantined to the school office and I had to come get him.  Not knowing anything about ringworm, I called our doctor and did a little research on my own.  Apparently ringworm is not contagious like the school thought and can easily be treated with a cream commonly used for athlete's foot.  So, we're armed with our cream and are ready to tackle ringworm.  Now, hours later, if you'd ask me what it is I'd say it a bite mark.  Kids!  I tell you, if it's not one thing, it's another! 


Also today since we had some free time, I started Gabe on some craft projects.  We used the foam stickers and make a collage of bugs for his daddy's bare walls and we started making monsters by blowing paint.  He wasn't too sure at first but he quickly caught on.  And, in typical two-year old fashion, he was uninterested in blowing the paint about 10 minutes in.  We then tried to get him to make hand prints but my crazy boy doesn't like to get his hands dirty.  I don't know what it is.  I'll keep trying though because hand print tulips are coming up on our project to-do list!

"Look, Momma.  Dirty.  Wash it Momma."

Monday, February 21, 2011

It begins...

I'm not much of one for writing but I do enjoy reading other's blogs and I thought it would be nice to really share what goes on day-to-day for my husband to read while he's doing his thing in Iraq.  So, here I am sharing my boring life as an Army wife and Mommy.


I am on deployment number 2 1/2.  Why the half?  I met my husband right before he deployed for his second time to Iraq.  While he was there we began talking more and more about life, or goals and what we were looking for in a soul mate.  As fate would have it, we wanted the same things and without putting too much thought in it, we started discussing what 'if' we got married when he came home.  'If' turned into when and so began our love story.  So, I guess since I wasn't his significant other for the whole deployment I will only count the half that I had to endure.  Needless to say, he came home, got down on one knee, proposed and we dashed off to the courthouse to seal the deal (I guess we actually went to the courthouse to make it legal and the deal sealing came later that evening.)  We built our life around our jobs in Texas, bough our first home and were blessed with our first child together, a son: Gabriel.  And then, when life is grand and wonderful the Army makes it interesting.


That's the thing about being an Army wife, you just never know what is around the corner and have to roll with the punches.  Orders to report to Fort Riley, Kansas were in our future and it sure felt like a punch in the gut.  The housing market was down, we had to rent our beautiful home for less than our mortgage and move to the middle of nowhere, Kansas.  It's a good thing I didn't decide to start this blog then because it would be rather depressing.  Moving to Kansas wasn't my first time picking up and relocating, I had done it two years prior - alone for that matter.  What didn't help the transition is I let everyone tell me how awful Fort Riley was and we struggled to find a new home. 


I won't lie, I cried for two months - until we found a great house to call home and finally were able to unpack and make life normal again.  It turns out it's not that bad at Fort Riley.  The land is pretty and it's close to family so we have been able to visit more often.  The downside, and a huge one for me, is the lack of "city."  It's hard for me to adjust to an area with minimal shopping within a 30 minute drive.  I adjusted as best I could and just shopped till I dropped when we headed out of town.  Plus, Fort Riley was able to deliver my beautiful baby girl, Lilliana, who has made our lives complete.


The story doesn't end there.  Once we are settled into our new home, enjoying our time together here comes the Army with their plans; plans to deploy my husband early.  Oh joy.  Luckily, another perk, Fort Riley is a family-orientated post and Luis was able to stay home until his dwell time was met, plus a month or so.  It was sad to see him go, but thankful it is not for another full year.  Fast forward to today where I have relocated my babies to my parents house which saves us on bills, utilities, and most of all my sanity.  I am ever so thankful to have help with day-to-day activities with two kids under the age of 2.


So, here we are just taking it day by day, making our lives as happy as they can be.  I get to talk to my husband everyday and he never lets me forget that he always has us on his mind.  I even get a little spoiled now and then, which isn't too bad either.  Besides, happy wife, happy life.  :o)