Sam's hospital stay OH and today is his birthday

First, so I don't forget Happy birthday to the man I married! I love him with all of my heart, and today he is 45! Or as he likes to put it 39 plus 6.

Sam has 2 stents that were put in back in 2003; when he was only 40! Since that time we have been in constant monitoring of things that most 40ish men don't really have to worry about, like cholesterol and blood pressure. Needless to say that when Sam came into the front room around 10 pm on Sunday night complaining of SEVERE pain in his shoulder and back, my first thought went to his heart... It was the kind of pain that brings a man to his knees. He was dying. I called Kaiser and they, as I thought they would, told me to take him to the ER. Nathalie was asleep so she stayed home with our roommate, and the lil' guy, well he got to come along for the ride! AT about 4 am, once they had rulled out all to do with Sam's heart for the most part, by way of EKG and blood work, I decided to take my baby and myself home as neither of us had slept, (YES William really stayed awake the ENTIRE time!) Monday morning I woke up around 730 got Nathalie and William all ready and then dropped Nathalie at school around 9 and William with my sister. I then headed back down to Kaiser, where Sam had been moved from the ER to the "observation unit", you know like the animals in the zoo! They were going to perform some further testing on his heart, and run Xrays on his shoulder as the pain was still a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. all tests run. no results. Final goal, to get pain managed. I never understood Chronic Pain until I saw my husbnd in it! Monday night was the first night my children have been without either of us over night! The good news is that they were super good for they're auntie, which means we may get an overnight date-night out of this eventually! The bad news, this means I got to sleep on a gurney next to my husband in the hospital! I mean common kids, that would have been the time to throw a fit so mommy had to come get you! No, I really didn't want to leave Sam..... He was discharged yesterday, (Tuesday) afternoon, still no answer. Seriously. I took him to his primary care today as he was so miserable all.night.long and really still no answers, we have to call Friday to schedule an MRI.......

anyways thats how my week started, how about yours?

Knott's Berry Farm

We took a trip up to Knott's Berry Farm on the 13th. It was when Sam's girls were here, and we had all planned on going, but William was pretty sick with a fever and runny nose/congestion, so daddy stayed home with him. It was the 3 girls, my sister and I! Nathalie had a blast. The prices were great, it was 20 dollars a person if you brought a can of food to donate to the Orange County food bank. It was around 80 degrees, and so uncrowded!

BPA- free is the way to be

for very many reasons, and due to my lazy attitude right now, I'll let you research that on your own! However, I stumbled across this awesome sippy cup review today. And although I was aware of most of these cups being BPA free, I had no idea that the munchkin cup was, and those are a lot less expensive, which makes mamma happy!

only a few more days

until I'm back to school! I feel like I just had finals and I start again Monday. I am waitlisted for both of my courses, but am hoping to take Anatomy with Lab and the 2nd Semester of Organic Chemistry w/ lab. My work schedule will also be quite different this semester, I'll be working Thursday through Sunday, which means quite a bit of changes in our household. On top of that, we are looking for a new place to live, as our lease is up at the end of February, and we really aren't happy with the new management in our complex. I always seem to strive under stress, I'm just hoping that I won't be biting off more than I can chew.

Sams visit with his girls

was fantastic, and we all enjoyed it so much. They left to go home on Friday and Nathalie misses her sisters tremendously! I know that Sam wishes they still lived out here. At any rate we had a great visit, and now my kids don't know what to do without there older sisters to bug constantly!

Nathalie got her ears pierced today

Its something that I've always wanted to do, and today ended up being the day. Lately she's been asking for earings more and more, I explained that it would hurt kind of like a shot, and she said that it was okay. She was such a brave girl, unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, but I did get a shot of one ear at the park, afterwards.

Some Pictures taken by Jocelyn

Sam's girls arrived today

Jocelyn and Briana arrived today at 3:00, they went with me to pick up Nathalie from school, and she was so excited to see her sissys, she actually calls Jocelyn Sissy, and Briana "her", but we're working on that as "her" isn't really the nicest label. After picking Nathalie up from school, we all came back to the house and it was so nice to see Sam's true happiness in seeing his older daughters. All 4 kids and I went to Costco, and it really wasn't as bad as it sounds, minus the price tag that is. But tomorrow we're having a BBQ up at my mom's and dad's, and throwing in a bday bash for Sam (although he doesnt really know that part yet) so I got all the food for that too; and Diapers were 40 dollars of it, so that considered, I really didn't spend all that much.

Monday, we are all going to go to Knotts Berry Farm and Nathalie is sooo excited to see Snoopy! I can't wait either, I don't know who is the most excited.

So, if you don't here from me for a few days, you now know why, but I will do my best to take pictures and post as much as possible.

what a difference a day makes

yesterday I was super mom. I had the kids fed and bathed by the time sam got home from work. I had all the dishes done and the kitchen clean. Today I had every intention to clean up the front room, put the laundry away etc, and I haven't done anything. I just picked Nathalie up from school, and rather than launching into dinner making mode, I gave them both snacks. So yesterday I was super mom and today I'm not.

Danger Danger, I'm having one of those days

so whining is about the best you'll get from me right now. I know I'm PMSing, I can feel it within every ounce of my body, not physically, emotionally. Yesterday the kids bugged me all day long by doing nothing or everything, it didn't matter. I worked today, but since then have been on constant bitch mode. I feel like my premenstural symptoms have increased severely after having had William, and I feel like they worsen every month. I get so glum and want to throw myself a pitty party. I seriously need motivation to play grown up now. I have sooo much to do this week, Sam's girls are coming on Friday from New Hampshire (his bday surprise. although he knows now) and I have cleaning to do and stuff to plan and right now I have complete insomnia and I'm tired. Ok well Im pretty sure I just complained enough for quite a while!

A car! A car!

So for quite a while now we've been having 1 car, and its been quite rough. Thankfully my Dad let us use is truck, but at about 9 miles to the gallon its safe to say that we have been avoiding driving it.
My Dad has mentioned a couple of times that his bosses daughter had an old station waggon as a 2nd car, that he thought she may be interested in parting with at a realitively low cost! He wondered if I was interested. um for sure! So my Dad called me yesterday and said he wanted to bring the car by for me to look at, ok. To me it was perfect, it runs, it would get me everywhere I needed to go, my Dad was confident enough about it and I really trust his judgement as he knows tremendous amounts about cars.
Well, I got the car today and I'm so happy about it! Although I don't have a picture of the actual car, Here is one just like it on auto trader. Nathalie calls it our big car lol.

Lots of pictures

I'm soooo behind in posting pics, here's a slide show to get a little bit caught up!

Date Night~ with myself

Tonight I originally had plans to see a movie with a friend; however, she had to bow out as she wasn't feeling well (read HUNG OVER). I attempted to contact other friends, including my sister, none of which were up to a movie night. I myself have not been to see an adult movie in the theater in over 3 years. I truly had my heart set on chick flick movie night, to go see P.S. I Love you! A customer at work after knowing all I had been through recently suggested it, and I really wanted to see it. So I decided I'd keep the date I had with my friend, with myself. It was an amazing night, I have never gone to a movie alone before, but I would most definitely do it again. I went to Grossmont Center, I had dinner at Panera, I had a bowl of baby portobello bisque which was delicious, and then enjoyed a fantastic chick flick that made me laugh and cry! It was truly a great way to start off the new year! I've definitely been in quite a funk lately and this helped me!

Oh and P.S. Sam knows about his birthday surprise now, and its not because I can't keep a seceret, its because he's a stubborn old man, and the only way I could get him to request off a few days was to tell him......I bought 2 plane tickets for his daughters to come and visit. They'll be here the 11th to the 18th. He couldn't not be more excited, so although, I really just wanted to surprise him, it will still be amazing!