Giving thanks

We just finished celebrating Thanksgiving this past week in our house as I'm sure most of you have. Dinner was held at our house where We had about 20 people in all. I love the feeling of a full house, and really his family is one of the best out there! All the women spent the day in the kitchen cooking, talking, and enjoying some wine while the men and children were in the livingroom watching the Macy's parade and football. Later in the day eventually they were so inspired they took all the kids outside to play a real game of football. Angel's aunt brought a fun game for everyone to play called Guesstures, and we ended up having a blast with it. At about 6 o' clock we began putting the food on the table- ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, rice, stuffing, baked ziti, corn, rolls, and sat down at our two tables (because there were so many of us)! We said Grace, and got to work haha! We finished thanksgiving dinner with 2 apple pies, and 1 pumpkin both topped with vanilla ice cream and cool whip! Even though this was my first Thanksgiving with out my Grandfather, Angel's family was able to come along and manage to fill that deep,dark whole in my Heart with their love, humor, craziness, warmth, and guidance and for that I am forever thankful.

Thanksgiving shopping!!

I ventured out to the grocery store today to pick out my **FREE** ham/turkey from Shoprite as well as all of the other goodies we'll be needing for thanksgiving dinner this year. For the past 3 years we have done Thanksgiving dinner at our house because it's a little bit more roomy and it can be such a hassle to pack up, now 2, children and travel an hour up to central jersey. My husband, Ayden, and I ventured into Shoprite with the notion that we would be fending off SAHM's, elderly ladies, and rude holiday people and it turned out to be quite the contrary! I have a feeling because we prepared ourselves ahead of time with a list of EXACTLY what we needed, it made the trip go a little bit more smoothly. We even happened to bump into a co-worker of mine and my husband's and were able to chat with her and her almost 1 year old daughter for a few minutes!! All in all it was a very successful trip to the grocery store (which have become few and far between these days with the two boys)! Tonight begins the "cleaning" portion of getting ready for Thanksgiving because family starts arriving tomorrow evening!!

3 months!

Today is our 3 month wedding anniversary! Yes I know most people say "oh just wait till It's been 10 years or so, you won't be that excited then"! The truth is I want to celebrate the time we are in now, and hope that through hard work, family, and our faith that we will continue to be as happy as we are now 10, 20, even 50 years from now! So here's to us hun 3 months down with many, many more to come! I love you.

More, more more!!

So the yard sale shopping didn't work out as well as i thought it was going to this morning, but as it does turn out my 3 year old is fascinated with them so next time i go a hunting i know who to take with me!! On the flipside I was able to take advantage of some really great sales that were going on today, again! I had coupons that were good for today and tomorrow at Oshkosh, Carters, and Kohl's. All coupons were spend $10, save $10 - you can't beat that! So i did, and i did it childless. Yup, you heard right folks, Daddy stayed home with Angel and Ayden while Momma was able to go shopping. Now, don't get me wrong i love my kids with my whole heart and would do anything for them but sometimes when your trying to shop in an overcrowded, tiny, messy, child's clothing store two children pulling at you in different directions, dropping their Bobo, and throwing their juice doesn't exactly give you the state of mind to pick out what you want...and toy stores are even worse because they have a tendency to just RUN after whatever catches their eye! All in all I was able to pick up 2 toys each for the boys and some books as well to add to our growing christmas presents!

Soooo excited!!!!

I'm so excited to say that I am going garage sale hunting tomorrow lol!!! I know i know, I'm such an old lady but its sad to say this is what excited me these days!

What a great deal!

I am so proud of myself right now. I actually took advantage of an awesome sale that saved me well over $50. I stopped by our local CVS to pick up infant Tylenol and Motrin because Ayden is sick and as I was checking out I passed their leftover Halloween odds and ends. Much to my advantage I noticed they had a few leftover halloween costumes, and after reading an old childhood friend, Haley's, blog i thought what a fantastic idea to buy some and put them away for christmas presents for baby angel! I was able to pick up 3 costumes that were 90% off. 1 bumblebee transformer, 1 optimus prime transformer, and 1 red power ranger all for $4.50!! This now means that I have officially started Christmas shopping for the boys, haha!!

Craigslist

For the first time in almost a year I finally am able to believe that craigslist is a REAL place for people to buy and sell items. What seperates this site from others such as Ebay is that usually most transactions happen locally, within a few miles of where each of the people live, therefore cutting down on shipping cost. I first heard about the website almost a year ago from my father in law, then from a few close friends. Today was the first day that I actually sold something on there and was able to make a few extra dollars- which doesn't hurt when we are this close to the holiday season!! I was sad to see some of our baby stuff go, but happy that I was able to help someone who was able to put the items to use rather than them sitting in the kids closet collecting dust!

Insomnia

I keep reading everyone posting lately about not being able to sleep and I'm afraid it is now my turn. For the past 3 or 4 nights I have not been able to sleep whatsoever. I feel restless, overstimulated, and my mind will not stop racing. As a mom we have about a million things on our mind at any given minute during the day and it feels like at night my brain will just not stop going to take a rest. For now I'm going to cut down my 3-4 cups of coffee throughout the day to 2-3 cups (I know I still need some sort of kicker to help me make it through with these 2 kids!), and also try not to drink ANY coffee after 6 or 7 p.m. at night. We'll see how it works :)

Pictures

I just booked our portrait session to have our family/holiday portraits taken this year. This is something we started last year after the birth of Ayden and it's something that I'd like to do with our family every year so we can see the changes in our family from year to year. I also like it because I always use one of the pictures for our Christmas cards that we send out, and this year I can finally write FROM THE ACOSTA'S!! Now I just have to come up with outfit ideas for the kids as well as Angel and I.

Frustration

Geico car insurance can go to H-E- double hockey sticks!! Today they are my latest frustration, along with about 20 other things on my mind, ha. Anyway I have been a loyal customer of theirs for 5+ years now and at the beginning of the month our NEW car was involved in a four car accident -luckily we were the last to get hit in the rear, and was the only car to drive away, and nobody was hurt. Well the guy whose car started this big mess happens to be a Geico customer as well, so they are trying to make us pay a $500 deductible for the damages to our new car when we were not found any percentage at fault because of course they are not going to go after themselves for the $500! He was found 100% at fault, and Geico themselves are claiming 100% at fault too. GRRRR! I will now be spending the next few days getting auto quotes from different companies because I am very upset with how they are dealing with this situation, wish me luck.

That time of year...

I was out driving with Angel and the boys recently when our oldest son, Angel, noticed a curb side Santa advertising for a store that was going out of business (only in America, right?!). Angel was completely infatuated, he knew it had to be the real Santa, afterall to 3 year olds Santa is kinda a hero!! He was standing there, with his big red belly full of jelly, his red suit, and his white beard. Angel asked his daddy to put the window down, and began frantically waving his hand out the window at Santa saying, " Santa it's me Angel I've been a good boy this year, can I please have a Wii." Haaaa, it was the cutest thing in the entire world. It definitely made up for the rough morning we had that day, pre-santa! I love my children <3

Thrifty!

I've recently discovered an amazing world that I never knew was out there! I've discovered that you can totally buy items second hand (in amazing, clean condition) for half as much, if not more, than the item would cost if it was new. Where have these places been all my life?! I mean of course you do have to search really hard sometimes and make sure that nothing is broken or damaged but as long as it is in working condition why not right?! I'll let you know how my adventures turn out!

Fort Hood

This image will forever be engraved in my mind.
This one hit us in America. On our own soil. That is what makes it even worse. I sat at work today and watched the memorial for our fallen heroes. I sat through the whole program as tears filled my eyes. I have never felt such sorrow for people of our country as I did today. Maybe it brought up memories of my grandfather (who was a Marine) and passed away back in May, or maybe it was the overwhelming feeling of patriotism that washed over my body I'm not quite sure. The 13 lives that were taken last Thursday in Fort Hood Texas as well as their family and friends will continue to be in my prayers. I can't even imagine the pain, and agony their families are going through. Innocent and noble men, women, mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers' lives were lost for the safety of all of us. So from the bottom of my heart thank you, and we will never forget what happened on November 12, 2009 in Fort Hood Texas.