The day after Christmas we went to Houston to celebrate the Holidays with my family. We were thankful to stay in my brother’s large new house. It was a good weekend and headed back to San Antonio on Sunday.

That night my mom went to into the ER, because she was in severe pain. Turns out that she broke her hip. Apparently she had fallen 2 weeks prior and didn’t tell anyone. She had surgery on Monday and we headed back to Houston. In our less than 24 hours at home we managed to get laundry done, the Christmas stuff taken down, and the house cleaned. The surgery went well.

The next day along with my brother, sis-in-law, niece, and sister we attacked my parent’s house and cleaned. I had already been thinking about going back and cleaning before I gave birth, so I was glad for the opportunity. I also wanted to throw out the tons of sugary sweets that my mom buys, even though she is diabetic. In the end the house may get cluttered again and she will probably buy all her sweets again, but I at least tried. Like Daniel said, we probably cleaned more for ourselves than for my parents.

My mom’s recovery from surgery went well in the hospital. I had honestly never seen her so happy. So on Thursday we came back to San Antonio on New Year’s Day. It seemed like we were there a week. My brother’s house was great, but I was constantly worried that Annabelle would tumble down their massive stairs or break something. (She had already fallen down our own stairs within the last week at home.) We were all glad to get back home so we could relax more.

My mom has been moved to Inpatient Rehab facility. She has been there 2 days and I think she hates it. We had the option of the hospital or the rehab place. I think either way she would hate it, because it isn’t home. There isn’t much I can say or do for her. She just needs be patient, get better and learn to walk again. Hopefully, she will choose to stay as long as she needs and actually get better so she won’t re-injure herself.

We are glad to be heading back to some normalcy and routine after the Holiday break and Houston trip. Hooray for Mother’s Day Out starting again!

See here is my head shot not too far from Jennifer Aniston’s head shot on the same website. Although her’s is a little higher up on the page than mine. Today a link to one of my The Mom Crowd posts is on the front of iVillage.com.  Super cool.

I hope you can look back on your 2008 with satisfaction and look forward to 2009 with excitement.   Get out there and do something you’ve never done before.   Let 2009 be the year “it” happens; whatever “it” may be.

Here’s some thoughts to get you going.

“The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.”
— Thomas Edison

“Satisfaction does not come with achievement, but with effort. Full effort is full victory.”
— Mahatma Gandhi

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing”
— Walt Disney

Here are a few photos from our Christmas Eve. It began at church at 4:00, then the party moved the Hinchmans, and finally Aunt Diane’s house with all the Espinoza’s!

at church

Annabelle gracing us with a few carols for us. I start Jane Austen talents early.

clapping for herself. She hasn’t learned modesty yet.

Annabelle and her cousins.

opening gifts

she really isn’t sleeping, but she sure was tired.

Aunt Norma’s bread pudding! Mmmmm….

My cousin, Amanda, got a new (to her) car!

Sunday began our Christmas trek around San Antonio and Houston. Our first visit was to Pastor Larry and Lynette’s house on Sunday evening. I lived in their home for 4 1/2 years while I attended college and then waited to marry Daniel. I consider them my spiritual parents and another set of grandparents to Annabelle. We had a great time celebrating with them over a big Caparelli’s pizza and opening presents. I am wearing one of my presents in the last photo.

Here are a few photos from Annabelle’s Christmas party at Mother’s Day Out. She goes to MDO twice a week from 9 - 2 pm. Daniel calls it ‘Man’s Day Out.’ The photos inside the sanctuary with the musical didn’t turn out too well, but here are a few from her classroom.

All the Mammas

Annabelle and her teacher Ms. Ruby.

I have sort of been on a book binge lately. It all started when we had a missionary couple over for dinner and the wife was looking over my bookshelves. She pointed out ‘The Poisonwood Bible’ by Barbara Kingsolver and said that every missionary needs to read this book. That was enough of a recommendation for me to start reading it. I don’t even know how it got on our shelves. Daniel and I both don’t know where it came from. I picked it up while Annabelle was playing in her playroom, hoping I could read while she played and my presence would be enough for her. That lasted one day. The next day she was closing the book while I read and said “no!”

The book is about a Baptist minister and his family trying to be missionaries in the Congo in the 1950’s. He has four daughters and each chapter is told through one of the daughter’s perspectives. There are also seven parts and the mother writes a flashback about her experience. The book is well written and is an engaging story. It isn’t a syrupy-happy tale, but it also isn’t so depressing that it affects your mood. There is so much history in the book as well and you really gain an understanding of what the culture and life is like living in an African village. I would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a good read that is more than fluff.

The next book I read was ‘Austenland’ by Shannon Hale. I took it up after Dawn’s recommendation. And of course, if it has anything to do with Jane Austen I have to read it. The story follows a single lady and her obsession with Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. I mostly love that it was set in modern times, but it isn’t trashy. The book is a clean, fun story. I think Miss Austen would be proud. I LOVED it! After I finished reading it I wasn’t ready to start another book right away, because I wanted to keep the taste of this book in my mouth a little longer. It was like a great chocolate souffle bite that you don’t want to ruin with dessert mints.

I just finished ‘The Thirteenth Tale’ by Diane Setterfield last night. I read it rather quickly. I picked it up after reading about it on Myra’s blog. I am not really into ghost stories and I was afraid that it would be too spooky for my tastes. Myra’s and Deb’s comments about how engaging the story is helped me look beyond that. Luckily, although it is a slightly spooky tale, it is a good mystery and an incredibly well written book. I often could not put the book down each night. The chapters ran into each other and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. If you like Jane Eyre, then you would probably like this book a lot.

The book follows a biographer who is doing a biography of a very famous author, Miss Winters. The author is a great storyteller and has given false stories about her origins all her life in interviews. Now she wants to tell the truth. So what is really the truth? The biographer, Margaret Lea, is about to find out.  Oh, it was a good book!

So now I feel like I am 3 for 3. I am lost now not being in the middle of a book. I need another one. Any suggestions??

Felicia, my mom-in-law blogged! Hopefully she will keep up with it. You can read about her weekend with her granddaughters and more about Cookie Day here.

Our second baby is due exactly 3 months from today on March 16th. I can’t believe he or she is coming so soon and I am excited! After my next midwife visit in the first week of January I think I am going to start going every two weeks. I honestly am grateful for the timing of this baby. Going from July to March has made the time pass a little faster. Baby 2 is moving A LOT and I sometimes wonder if he or she ever naps.

We Got Sick on Sunday

Both Daniel and I got sick this Sunday. We still aren’t sure what Daniel had, but he had a fever, was fatigued, was achy, and didn’t feel well at all. Me, I got to have a stomach virus of some sort. I was vomiting all night. Yesterday, I slowly worked my way back to eating and was afraid of getting dehydrated. We all slept well last night and are doing much better today. Luckily, Annabelle didn’t show any symptoms of being sick except being kind of clingy.

Some Good News

I got a call from the Birth Center yesterday and I do NOT have Gestational Diabetes. My response on the phone, “For real!?” Nicole said, “For real.” I asked her what my numbers were. She didn’t have them in front of her, but she did say that they were kind of high, but were still within range. She told me that I should still be careful. So yay, no uber diet to follow and I don’t have prick my fingers and watch a clock all day. I had everything ready to go in case I had it. I am still surprised that I passed the test.

I haven’t received my gestational diabetes test results yet, so I got to enjoy my family’s Christmas Baking Day this year. Daniel’s mom and sister, Felicia and Denise, and I all had a great time slaving away in the kitchen. Mom’s peanut butter cookies didn’t turn out, but Denise and I certainly made up for the lack in quantity. Felicia acted as a kid wrangler and cookie runner during the day. Dad, Matt, and the girls appreciated the product of our labor.

Neither Denise or I were very creative this year. We made oatmeal & M&M cookies, corn flake wreaths, some kind of 7-layer cookie, brownies, snickerdoodles, peppermint bark, sugar cookies, oatmeal & chocolate chip cookies, regular chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate chip & hazelnut cookies.

(Dee and I both look a little rough after baking all day.)