i've been collecting the state quarters for 10 years. in just a couple weeks, all of the state quarters will have been issued. it's the only thing i've ever collected. i have them all (thanks to help from connie and donna who always kept me in mind whenever they got change)...except the non-contiguous states. i just need alaska and hawaii and my collection will be complete!

my scramble skills are deteriorating. i randomly played several games of scramble with one of my high school classmates. we weren't really friends in high school yet we were facebook scramble buddies. i ran into her at the finish line of our breast cancer walk last saturday. it's funny how much closer facebook makes people to one another.

the three-hour time difference between michigan and california makes it impossible to talk to my dinner buddy. has it been a month that we've been trading voicemails and text messages?

i found my halloween bowl over the weekend and decided to buy all kinds of chocolate to fill it up. hersheys, twix, kit kats. all gratifying when seeking a true chocolate fix. eric gave up chocolate and fried foods again. it was probably insensitive of me to not get any non-chocolate candy for the bowl. but who wants sweet-tart scented hershey bars? not me.

i've made the switch to diet cola. i can't do diet anything else yet. just the cola. other than red pop, i really only like coke anyway (and pepsi if coke is not available). when i was younger, i categorized myself as a pepsi drinker. part of me wanted to be supportive of tito henry's career (that would be jeff's dad who retired from pepsi). another part of me just like it more because that's what my dad always bought. i didn't think i could tell the difference until i took a taste test at the showcase cinema in ann arbor when i was in college.

such random thoughts tonight. i'm letting my brain veg because i've been thinking really hard lately at work. it needs a rest.

there is no time to blog. only time to play scramble.

i got the call this morning at 10 a.m. it was eric. "The United States' chances of winning gold in women's soccer at next month's Olympics were dealt a major blow Wednesday when striker Abby Wambach suffered a broken leg in a friendly against Brazil."

:O!!!!!!!!!!

i love love love the u.s. women's soccer teams so this news is so upsetting. wambach is out for at least 12 weeks...meaning she's missing the olympics. sad sad news. :(

summer is half over. it has been eventful so far...isaiah finishing his first year of school, road trip to jersey for a wedding, road trip to cheboygan to join the guevaras for their first weekend in their new home, relay after relay, ryan's surprise party (er, parties), new babies, plenty of hanging out - especially with rob, ellen, noah, and ellie....

the rest of the summer is going to fly by. we have trips to new york and connecticut (possibly virginia?) planned, a visit from nj cousins, ethan's birthday, isaiah's birthday...and all i can think about is when is the next chance we'll get to go back up to the wonderful land of cheboygan? the land where clean shallow lake water extends for days into the lake, where there are so many fireworks displays that you actually tire of watching them, where the clear night sky reveals more stars than you ever thought could exist, where big ice cream cones cost $1.35, where kites fly on their own and our toddlers can catch (many) fish by just dropping their lines into the river bank behind the guevaras' house. the wonderful land of cheboygan. :)

****

i am emotionally ready to get back to soccer fit. not that i was ever soccer fit, but at least to where i can run around enough to be a productive defensive player. eric thought he could get me to play mid. yeah right! the goal is to be soccer fit for outdoor 2009. stretch goal is for the indoor session right before outdoor starts. yikes! i haven't played since isaiah was 6 months old. four years. man. i'll have to be creative with how i can squeeze in the time. wish me luck!

i'm still recovering from our trip to new jersey last weekend. we drove. the 10 hour trip to new jersey turned into a 20 hour one because we decided to be smart and crash in a hotel instead of trying to drive through the night. the 10 hour trip home was really 11.5, thanks to angels and demons on audio book. i swear if i had to, i could drive across the country listening to that book. the suspense just does not stop! it feels like i'm at the end of the book, but there are still 2.5 hours left. these days, i don't mind traffic much. :)

we stayed with one of eric's cousins in new jersey. (thanks for housing us, nini!) she has three boys. his other cousin jeremy also stayed with us. he has two boys. all in all there were 8 boys 8 and under! i thought it would be so incredibly crazy, but it wasn't. the older boys kind of took care of the younger boys, and they all loved being around each other. besides, i think all of us parents have given into the madness and have accepted that boys will be boys. they will punch and kick and be loud and run around and fall off of stuff and wrestle. it's so different from the last time we were in jersey. there were only 5 boys at the time and isaiah was just 10 weeks old. eric and i were such different parents then. jumping up whenever the baby cried, worrying about all these little things. ahhh...the days of just one child. life was so simple then. oh, but the joys and love of having two more boys will never outweigh that simplicity.

8 boys 8 and under + emily and jd!

congratulations to omar and marilou! thanks for getting us out to new jersey. wishing you a lifetime of happiness!

so the day after my last post was probably the worst day of work that i have ever had. it was probably the most humbling as well, so i am thankful for it. i have been working my butt off with more focus and accomplishment ever since.

it has been a rough six weeks returning to work. these weeks have been hard. on me, on eric, on our family. and the laundry has piled up again. i swear it will take me six weeks to catch up.

the highs and lows of volunteer management are extreme. it seems ridiculous and greedy to keep asking for more...but the reality is that if you never ask, you'll never know what you can get. i have learned that people are waiting to *be* asked, for that opportunity to make a difference, and it is only fair to offer it to them. i have a hard time asking people for stuff, which is ironic because my whole job is about asking people for stuff. i really have no idea where i'm going with this post. i guess i'm just in awe of my volunteers. their capacity to give of themselves to the point where they are doing so much for us that it could be a second job to them is amazing to me. i appreciate them and am inspired by them.

if only you could hear the stories i have heard in the last six weeks...mothers fighting for their children, cancer survivors fighting for themselves and future survivors, sons fighting for their fathers, husbands fighting for their wives....mothers losing their children, sons losing their fathers, husbands losing their wives. an 8-year old student from one of my dearborn teams lost his battle the day of the dearborn relay. another 8-year old cancer survivor celebrated his birthday that same day. i cried for both of their mothers that day. can you imagine the incredible relief that you would have when your baby with cancer makes it through another year of life? what a gift life is! i come home to my boys and am so thankful that the worst we have had to deal with is a couple of viruses and my crazy work schedule.

my relays are done, so now i can actually focus on doing my job. even better, no more working late nights...i can come home and hang out with eric and the boys!

i am exhausted and overwhelmed. i hate to admit that i am either of these things because it makes me feel weak and incompetent, which i hate. i have been able to will myself to push through anything up until now.

the truth is that i am exhausted. i have run out of steam. my body just does not want to keep up with all the things my mind wants it to do. there are not enough hours in the day or enough of me to go around.

i feel myself sinking deeper and deeper into work. i need to take a break before it swallows me whole and won't let me out....

today was my last full day with my boys before heading back to work. my maternity leave officially ends tomorrow. after that, it's just another weekend.

we spent a few hours today getting our butts kicked by isaiah at wii sports. (yes, eric too!) isaiah actually mercied eric in baseball. isaiah hit 9 homeruns in the first inning and eric could not hang. ha. i think one of the reasons that isaiah loves wii sports so much is because he gets to see everyone (as mii's) when he plays. "hey, there's lola! that's my dad! it's alvin and the chipmunks!"

9 weeks has gone be super fast. things i will miss very much when i go back to work:

• picking up isaiah from school
• isaiah and ethan finding their way into eric's and my room in the morning and sleeping in with all three boys
• just hanging out with the boys and watching them play together and make each other laugh
  
• play dates with noah and ellie
• having time to cook and clean
• having lunch with eric
• only filling up my gas tank twice in 9 weeks
• no night meetings
• mid-afternoon naps

next week will be a big adjustment for all of us. wish me luck!

less than two weeks left of maternity leave. the nice part is that isaiah is off of school all next week for spring break, so i will have to make sure that i take advantage of the rest of my time off with the boys.

owen is HUGE. at least compared to when he was born. i'm guessing he's pushing 9 pounds by now. 7 weeks old. how did 7 weeks go by already? he has to wear mittens because he scratches his face and aggravates his baby acne. his legs are getting stronger and i swear he wiggled himself across his floor gym last week.

ethan is rocking him right now and shushing him because he is crying. ethan is so incredibly sweet these days. more so than before. he copies everything isaiah does, including "mmm...pop!" awesome. if you pretend to be sleeping, ethan will give you a kiss to wake you up.

isaiah is so helpful and loves loves loooooves his baby brother. he also loves the color blue and playing Playground on the wii (yes! we finally have one!). noah is his best friend. they love playing Playground together. isaiah is "songer' and noah is "robot." songer is actually the kid with the headphones and robot is actually the kid in the glasses that does that robot as a victory dance.

i'm a little bit hooked on bizarre foods with andrew zimmerman and no reservations with anthony bourdain. they eat the grossest things, and i can't help tuning in tuning in to see the latest gross thing they are brave enough to stomach. (gosh, i wish i had something more intelligent to offer.)

let it be known that today i am officially caught up with the laundry!!!

i met eric in 1995. i was 15 and a sophomore and he was 17 on the verge of turning 18 and a senior. he invited me to his birthday party at his house where i knew exactly 1 person: him. my brother came with me since he was also friends with eric...it also happened that a couple of his friends (that i didn't know) were also at the party.

i don't remember remember having much fun at the party because:
1. eric didn't introduce me to anyone. no one. keep in mind that i was a lowly sophomore at a senior party. i was also too shy to start making friends that night.
2. eric put on a wig and made fun of me. "look at me! i'm anna!" awesome. i love being laughed at by a room full of people that i don't know. (*note the sarcasm.)

apparently, eric was charming enough to win me over because here we are, 13 years later, married, 3 kids, and still in love.

happy birthday, babe! just a few more years and you'll have known me for most of your life.

my three sons

i have this thing for pop. i love drinking it. most pop is caffeinated, so giving it up during pregnancy is pretty tough (i'm not the biggest fan of sprite/sierra mist).

faygo red pop is one of my favorite drinks and happens to be caffeine free. :) my meijer store stocks it at the end of the pop aisle. one day, it was not in its usual spot - it was more towards the middle of the pop aisle, which i thought was strange, but whatever, someone stocked the red pop in the wrong place. i picked up the red box and put it in my cart.

when i got home, i was enjoying my red pop. mmm, red pop. yummy! later, i was pouring out a couple unfinished cans of red pop and noticed that the red pop was no longer obnoxiously red, but a more reddish brown. huh. they must have gone with more natural ingredients and nixed the crazy red dye. so i took a look at the box of red pop. that's weird. why is there a cherry on the box? red pop is strawberry soda. i blinked a few times. does that box say 'cherry cola'????

so i had purchased faygo cherry cola instead of red pop. (in my defense, the boxes were both red and had a picture of red fruit on it.) in my eagerness to enjoy one of my favorite drinks, i didn't even notice that it wasn't red pop. i drank a whole can of cherry cola thinking it was red pop and didn't even realize that the red pop tasted a lot like cherry cola because it was cherry cola.

i recounted my experience to my siblings, who of course will never let me live it down. whenever either of them take a sip of cherry coke, cola, pepsi, etc. in front of me, it's immediately followed by a "mmm..red pop!" in fact, why not spread the fun?

isaiah as he takes a sip of his chai: "look at me mom! mmm....red pop!"

isaiah as he takes a sip of his juice: "look mama! mmm...red pop!"

isaiah talking to me: "hey mama, do you remember when i took a sip of my drink and said 'mmm...red pop!'"??

isaiah after i asked him who taught him that: "tito ryan!"

haha. soooo funny. :|

13 days old.

introducing owen.

i think this past week of lack of sleep has shortened my patience by about 40%. i don't like being cranky. it is probably good timing with lent starting today.

the bet:

players - me and kimmie
the stakes - achatz pie
the terms - owen comes after feb. 2, i win. owen comes before feb. 2, kimmie wins.

on the way home from the hospital on tuesday, eric and i stopped by achatz to pick up a banana split pie for kimmie.

i don't think that you should be allowed to go into labor when you have the flu. it was like the second my fever broke and my headache subsided, the real contractions began. thankfully, it was a quick labor and semi-quick delivery.

i love epidurals. i think i would have cried if i missed my chance to have one.

we got to the hospital at 10:30 p.m. and owen ambrosio agustin was born just four hours later. (see eric's blog for a more detailed account.) he is just so tiny and precious and i love him so much!

i would post pictures except i haven't gotten around to downloading them yet. soon. stay tuned...

also, the entire family is sick so we're kind of keeping the boys away from owen. hopefully we'll get to take a family picture sometime soon...

thanks for the prayers and good thoughts sent our way!

wow. first post of 2008. i'm surprised it has taken me this long.

it was great having a lazy two and a half weeks at home. it wasn't really lazy because it's hard to be lazy when hanging out with two toddlers. but it was nice to just all be home together. especially since 2008 came around and proceeded to kick my butt up until tuesday. and now i'm coasting through to the end of the month when my maternity leave starts...

all of my co-workers were so certain i would go into labor the morning of the conference that i was in charge of. i was (and still am) absolutely certain this baby will arrive one week late, just like his brothers.

...isaiah beckons me to play go fish...more later....