Another Christmas

Christmas has already come and gone, but still I wonder what it would be like if my mom would have been here this year. That is the same thing I thought last year as I spent my first Christmas without her. I cried with a very dear friend just a few days ago because this would be the first Christmas she would be having without her son. Having spent a Christmas without a very special loved one there I knew how she felt. It doesn't get any easier.... or it hasn't so far. I wonder if it ever will. Anyway... I will celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior and one day I will be celebrating in Heaven with my beautiful mother right beside me!! I can't wait for that day to come!!

One month ago today

One month ago today I gave birth to a beautiful little girl named Anneliza Sophia! I am so truly blessed... not just because I have another beautiful little girl, but because she looks like me!!! Actually, I have this picture of my mom when she was a baby and I believe that it could be Anneliza. She looks just like my mother when she was younger. And I look just like my mom!! I love watching her sleep... she makes the cutest little nosies when she is asleep and I tell my husband that she is talking to my mom and his grandma in Heaven!! I know that when she came into this world that God opened up the windows of Heaven and let my mom look down on her and me. I wish with all my heart that my mother could have been in the delivery room holding my hand telling me I was doing a great job, but instead God blessed me with having my wonderful husband, my grandmother, and my mema (godmother) in the room with me. And my dad and his wife DeeDee were waiting in the waiting room for the thumbs up that she had arrived. She was born at 4 in the morning, so her big sisters got to skip school that day and come to the hospital and see her! Alle was telling everyone that came into the room that she had a suprise and when they would ask her what it was she would say... "My baby sister Anneliza Sophia Torres! Look at her she is so beautiful!" From the mouths of babes come the most wonderful words! It was so wonderful to see her take to her new baby sister so well. Alex and I were kind of worried that it wouldn't be an easy transition. Anyway... we are enjoying every minute we have with all of our girls and giving them all the love that we have so that they will grow up knowing that their mommie and papi loved them.

The Amazing Ipod

So I love to listen to my ipod while I'm doing housework. It helps drown out everything that is going on and I just love to dance around!! Anyway... I have all kinds of music on it and I just put it on shuffle so that I can listen to a little bit of everything. As I was listening away the other day a Todd Agnew song came on called "MY JESUS." I was stopped in my tracks. I went and got on the computer and looked up the words to the song because when your not really paying attention to the song you miss some of the words, and I wasn't paying attention at the beginning. As I read the words to the song I thought to myself... " Everyday I pray that I might be more like my Jesus, but I'm not doing anything that my Jesus would do!" It was like I was hit square in the forehead like on the V8 commericals... my 6 year old calls that being "V8ed." Isn't amazing how God can use housework and a $200 IPOD to knock you back on to his path! A few Sundays ago my pastor said it perfectly... "When you are dazzled by God, you are not duped by sin." Well, let me tell you... this song has made me more dazzled by God then I have ever been in my whole life! I want to be like my Jesus... not like the world. I want to be dazzled by God so that I can be powerful over all sin. Listen to the song... it will make you really strive to be like OUR JESUS!!

Hospitals :(

Why is it that when you go to the hospital because something is wrong they don't find out what is wrong and you come home more sick then when you went in?! Last Thursday I went to the hospital because my left arm went totally numb... for no reason. I had 2 MRI's, 1 MRA, 27 tubes of blood drawn, my arteries dopplered, and 2 ultrasounds... and what did they find out?? NOTHING!! How does that happen? I mean... come on!! I truly think that it is the fact that I can have my baby at anytime and she has moved her precious little body into some small little space in my body that I didn't know that I had and is pushing on a nerve that is making my arm go numb. Sounds like a good diagnosis to me... but not one of the 7 different doctors that I saw in the 5 days that I was in the hospital came up with that diagnosis. Now as I deal with this numbness... I have also discovered that it will not effect all the decisions that I make about certain medications that I will take later down the road. How convient!! So... I home now... thank goodness, but I came home with a head cold and an infection in my left arm where they had my IV. I know... makes me really what to go back anytime now and have my baby! I use to work in a hospital. Now... I'm wondering if I was this bad to the patients that I saw everyday! Ahhh!!

Bedtime Stories

Every night I read a bedtime story to my 2 girls from their children's bible. Most of these stories are very simple, 3-4 pages long, just the outline of the "real" story. However, my girls are on the edge of their beds, listening so intently, then when it is over... they lay down and wait for the next night so they can see what story is next. I love it!! I love that they are so excited to read the bible at such a young age. My youngest Alle, who is 4, completely understood that when Adam and Eve ate the "bad" apple they didn't listen God and not listening is very bad. It's so wonderful that you can take a simple bible story such as Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit and apply it to everyday life so that a 4 year old understands not listening is bad. WOW!! Now if I can just pay more attention in "big" church, as my girls call it, so that I can get something so simple out of a big story. I take notes and jot down little bits of information that I think will be important to remember later, but do I really get something so simple out of the sermon and do I apply it to my everyday life? It's wonderful how the heart of a 4 year old can tell the heart of her mother... "Pay attention to the simple things." Now as I go about reading my own daily devotion I stop and think... what is one simple thing I will get out of this today? And how can I apply it my life today and be a better mother, wife, friend, co-worker, and devoted daughter of my Lord?