Dear Mother Nature:

Dear Mother Nature:

I understand that you are fickle. I also understand that you, apparently, have a thing against Houston since you've decided to let us bake in triple digit temps for the last, oh, 2 weeks...and did I mention that you've apparently decided that we are not good enough for rain. Well...I guess you changed your mind last night and decided to bless us with a nice lil' evening downpour. What I DON'T appreciate is that you decided that Monday night at 7PM was a nice time to bring on the storms. Oh weather goddess -- don't you know that Monday nights are sacred in the Aguilar house? Monday nights = Bella to bed early, a tall glass of wine and THE BACHELORETTE for two hours of viewing enjoyment. But not last night. Last night you decided to open the proverbial floodgates and the result? Our satellite went out which meant that about 30 minutes into my Monday night awesomeness, I lost TV reception! Do you know what that feels like, Mother Nature? Do you know how frantic I became? I turned the power on/off thinking maybe that would fix things. Nope. I ran into the bedroom thinking maybe it was just the living room TV that was messed up. Nada. No matter what TV I ran to, I saw the same blank screen.

So yeah...thanks alot, Mother Nature. This week's episode was going to be the MOST DRAMATIC EVER! Instead, I got to stare at a blank screen and ended up going to be at EIGHT THIRTY! Instead of enjoying my 2 hours of dramatic greatness last night, I was forced to read recaps of the show on the internet. UGH! You just have no idea.

In closing, I'd like to thank you for the rain last night. I mean, nevermind that our sprinklers ran that morning (and again this morning since we forgot to turn the damn rain sensor on)...and nevermind that you could have just let it gently sprinkle for say an hour or two. No...when you decide it's going to rain at Casa de Aguilar...you mean it. Our grass certainly thanks you, but my broken little heart doesn't. I'll never get those 2 hours back, Mother Nature. And for that I say &^%#*^#$&!

Sincerely,

Me

Graduation week

This week is Bella's last week in the infant room at MLCS. Next Monday, July 6th, she will move into the Bridge class. We are all a bit sad about the fact that she's moving up/out. She will be leaving behind teachers that Sean and I have grown to love and adore (and trust implicitly). Bella has fallen in love with Miss Cindy, Miss Rachelle, Miss Brandi and most recently, Miss Marcela. Moving out of the Infant class means saying goodbye to these wonderful ladies, but it also means learning to love two new teachers: Miss Esther and Miss Janice. It also means joining her friends Paige and Reese (and Lance, too!). In the new class, Bella will get to play outside, take naps on cots, and play in the indoor playground with the other kiddos every afternoon.

Last week, Bella got to play with the bigger kids for a few hours each day to help transition her to the new class. From what the teachers said, Bella had a ball! I know she will be sad to leave her teachers but I also know moving up will be a great thing for her. She will learn to walk and self-feed...she will grow from a baby into a little girl!

Today Bella seemed so happy to go to school (well, she's happy to go to school every morning, but this morning she was more excited than usual). Maybe she knows that fun times await her? Either way, we are all looking forward to this next chapter in her little life.

Bella has discovered the doggie door...

Bella followed Toby to the doggie door yesterday afternoon. It was quite funny! She is very interested in Toby these days, and has even started "barking" at Toby when he barks. She thinks he's super funny. So Toby headed out the doggie door, and Bella followed behind him and stopped when she got to the door. Here's Bella caught in action:

Unfortunately, she also discovered that the plastic flap moves. Poor thing went to put her hand up on it and stumbled a bit, which led to a crying fit. Poor thing! How long until she tries to crawl through it??

A weekend of painting

Sean and I spent the weekend painting, and painting...and painting some more. Because we had sheetrock repairs in every room of the house, we had touch-up painting to do in every single room. We also decided to paint the built-in cabinets in the kitchen. They were not a pure white to begin with so we painted them a bright white, and ended up having to paint the trim in the kitchen, too.

We got a ton of painting done (thanks to my mom who kept Bella Saturday and Sunday). The best part of the weekend work was seeing the dining room completely finished (well, we do have a few minor touchups to do in there but nothing major) and seeing the kitchen restore to its full glory.

Here are some pics of the dining room and kitchen:

Guest bathroom work begins

The tile guy was up to his normal mischief yesterday! After the bathroom was demo'd on Tuesday, he started to lay the floor tile yesterday. While it doesn't look fabulous at this stage in the game, I know it's going to look fantastic once it's grouted and once the tile baseboards are put in.

In the meantime, this is what our guest bathroom looks like right now:

The finished products...

The master bath is now complete. Shower door was put in yesterday so all that's left for us to do is paint the walls and ceiling. YAY!

The tile guru also finished our kitchen backsplash yesterday. Aside from a few minor fixes he needs to do, it's pretty much done. YAY again!

Here are some pics:

If a picture speaks a thousand words...

This was taken on Sunday while out to lunch for Father's Day. What cracks me up is that I had no idea Bella wasn't looking at the camera. The expression on her face is priceless!

(pay no attention to my make-up free face!)

Houston: We have a shower!

I am elated to report that our master bathroom is, for the most part, finished! I actually took a shower in it this morning! It's pretty sweet, if I do say so myself. The toilet is really cool, too. It's like a commercial grade toilet - one very light push on the flusher and voila! Waste be gone!

Our shower door should be going in today so we will be fully functional by this time tomorrow. We still have to have some sheetrock put in just outside the shower (hope they do that soon so we can completely finish the master bath), but all in all, we're in good shape.

We also came home to find most of our kitchen backsplash tiled. We ran out of tile so the tile guy wasn't able to finish yesterday (but a quick trip to Lowe's fixed that!). But, it should be finished today. Once the electrical guy comes back out to put the light in the pantry, our kitchen should be completely finished. Woo-hoo!

The guest bathroom is being demo'd today which means more dust/debris. ARGH! If all goes as planned, we should be completely finished (less punch list items) by the end of next week. This has been a relatively smooth process, but I am more than ready to have our house back!

Here are some pics of yesterday's work:

Wainscoting

Sean and I decided to start painting this weekend and we picked the dining room as our first "project". We got the wainscoting completely painted (still have to finish off the edges with caulk) and the crown molding just needs one more coat of paint. Unfortunately, we also have a lot of cleaning up to do as we managed to get paint on the floor in several spots. We also have to do some touch-up painting on the walls where we had the sheetrock repaired. But it's starting to come together. Here are some pics:

It's almost a REAL shower!

Yesterday we came home to find more progress in the master bathroom shower. The tile wainscoting is up on the walls and the rest of the shower was tiled. Today is grout work and Monday brings the finishing touches: adding the toilet and the shower fixtures. The glass shower door should go in towards the end of next week. It's sooooo pretty! I can't wait to be able to use our shower again and actually be able to take a shower with the light on (I used to shower with the light off because the shower was just so darn ugly). Thoughts??

Tile is going up!

Came home yesterday to find new tile on our bathroom floor and tile going up in the shower! YAY!! I will admit that the tile work is taking longer than I thought it would, but at least we are starting to see some progress. While I doubt we'll have a working master shower by the weekend, at least we are getting closer to getting our bedroom back!!

It's a UTI

Bella and daddy just got done at the doctor and turns out she's got a Urinary Tract Infection. UTIs are quite rare in babies -- according to a babycenter.com article I read, only 8% of baby girls will get one. Guess Bella is one of the unlucky ones. Dr. Pielop gave her an antibiotic to take but we'll have to go to Texas Children's sometime in the next week or two to have further testing done. They want to test her bladder and all the other "stuff" down there to make sure it's working right. Means we'll be looking at more catheters, ultrasounds, and more fun stuff. I'm understandably nervous/scared (as is Sean, I'm sure). I just want our little girl to be healthy and safe...I don't like to see her suffer or be in pain.

If you could spare a prayer for Bella that would be fantastic!

Say a prayer for Bella...

Bella woke up with 105.2 fever this morning. Y esterday it was only 104.3...fever going up, not down, is never a good thing. Sean is at the doctor with her as I type this. Please say a prayer that her health is returned to her quickly...

Passion of the Christ

I will admit that I'm not a really "strong" Christian. What do I mean by that? Well...I don't make it to church on Sundays, I can't quote scripture. Heck...I couldn't really tell you any of the "characters" from the Bible other than Mary, Joseph, Jesus, Adam and Eve (and the 4 apostles, of course). I try to say my prayers every night but usually end up falling asleep mid-thought. I take the Lord's name in vain (too often!), curse, scream at my husband (and mom...and sister), gossip...pretty much cover all the sins on a daily basis (well...except the BIG ones). My faith is something I always mean to work on and strengthen...I just never get around to it.

Until last night! Last night Sean and I were flipping channels and we happened to come across the last hour of "The Passion of the Christ". Neither one of us had ever seen the movie, and as luck would have it, we happened to tune in just as Pontius Pilate is "sentencing" Jesus to downright torture. Now...I'm vaguely familiar with what happened to Jesus when he was sentenced as a false prophet. Sean and I sat in church a few months back and listened to our pastor, Dr. Jim Jackson, tells us about the happenings of Good Friday (which weren't very good, ironically!). So I was familiar with all of this, but seeing it played out on the small screen was almost more than I could stomach.

For those who haven't seen the movie or who aren't familiar with what happened on Good Friday (or what happened leading up to the crucifixtion of Jesus) -- it was very, very violent and sad! As I sat on the couch (couldn't move!), I started sobbing! Watching Jesus get lashed over and over again, watching pieces of his flesh get torn from his body...watching his followers try to give him water and pray at his feet. It was just too much! I suddenly felt like a very, very small human being. The film pretty much brought me to my Christian knees! I started to think about God and how he sacrificed his son for the sins of man. Jesus knew what was going to happen to him, too, yet he didn't run. I love my daughter more than anything and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to sacrifice her for the sins of my friends, family...anyone! So as I watched this film, I couldn't stop thinking about the selfless act that God and Jesus did on that fateful day. Even as Jesus was dying on the cross...as the nails were being rammed into his palms and into his feet...he prayed for his torturers! It was just so deep and so heavy...and exactly what I needed to witness.

I went to bed last night praying that I could/would become a better/stronger Christian. Watching that last night made me want to become a better person. It made me want to forgive a whole lot of people who have hurt me/wronged me in my 32 years of life. It made me want to try harder not to sin...and to try harder not to judge. After all...Jesus did not judge. And he, of all people, had every right to judge...but he didn't.

Anyway...if you haven't seen the movie "The Passion of the Christ", I stronly suggest you watch it (or at least the last hour of it). It has the possibility to change your life for the better. As for me? Tomorrow I start my 365 days of the Bible. By this time next year I will have read the entire Bible, chronologically, of course! I figure it's a small step in the right direction of becoming someone Jesus would be proud of.

Daddy's girl...

What can I say...this girl loves her daddy...

Cutest laundry load ever!

Table for 11, please...

Sunday afternoon we met up with some of our most favorite people: the Kotlarz's (Frank, Kara, Parker and Carson and baby #3 in the "oven"), the Oestreich's (Eric, Chelsi, Edie and baby #2 in the "oven"), and Kelli P! That's 7 grown-ups and 4 little ones...and this time next year the grown-ups will outnumber the littles ones by only ONE! Pretty crazy, huh?

We met up at Lupe Tortilla's in Sugarland -- a great place to dine if you've got rugrats with you, by the way. We hadn't seen everyone for over a month so it was nice to get together. Bella had a ball flirting with Eric and grinning and giggling at Kara (they got to sit next to each other!). It was so much fun getting to catch up with everyone. Parker and Carson are so adorable -- they are little men and are just so funny and have such great personalities. And Edie...gorgeous Edie. She is such a little lady and is so sweet! Although I didn't get to witness this, Sean says that Edie gave Bella a kiss goodbye on our way out of the restaurant. SO CUTE!

We tried to get a good picture of all 4 of the kiddos together but alas, we couldn't make it happen. We tried to get Carson to put his arm around Bella for a cute picture but he would have none of it (much to Sean's delight, I'm sure!). Parker, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind. He wrapped his arm around Bella but Bella wasn't too thrilled (again...much to Sean's delight). Guess she isn't quite ready for the Kotlarz boys, huh? :-) I have a feeling that one day we'll be having to bribe her to leave the Kotlarz boys alone as they are going to be some seriously cute teenagers one day!

Here are some really cute pictures from our outing:

(LOL! She looks appalled that he has his arm around her!)

What a great day it was! Very much enjoyed the time with our friends and can't wait to do it again!

(Shout out to the gorgeous pregnant mommies Kara and Chelsi and an extra special shout out to Kelli P who is looking FIERCE! She is my inspiration. She is kicking butt and taking names with this whole eating healthy thing. You look AMAZING, Kelli! I need to be as dedicated as you...)

A visit with Grandpa...

My dad and Mary came down to visit this weekend. It had only been about a month since my dad had seen Bella but she has changed a LOT in that short month. Bella was so excited to see her grandpa and was looking forward to showing him all of her new tricks (saying/waving "bye bye", blowing kisses, and most recently...standing up all by herself and taking steps when holding onto something). We met for lunch first and Bella got to show everyone how she can drink out of a straw. She also showed everyone that she can eat "big girl" food (i.e. the nastiest grilled cheese sandwich you've ever seen!). Bella had a ball! After lunch, we went back to Aunt J's house and Bella took a 2-hour nap. She had to rest up so she could "perform" when she got up!

Once Bella woke up, it was "go" time. Bella entertained everyone and had a blast showing off. Here are some pics from the day:

Love this picture of Bella with her Aunt J!

Standing up all by herself...she stood like this, clapping, for a good 20-30 seconds!

Trying to walk to daddy...(not quite there yet!)

Making "fish lips" with Aunt J!

And two of the sweetest pics from the day -- Bella with her grandpa: