Life Update

This is for those (if any!) are just wondering what we have been up to, why haven't I blogged, and are we still alive!?

We are alive...and well, Praise God!

I got a job. I’m working at a law firm, doing what I went to school for.  Yay! I really love this job. Not only do I get my own office, but I am also learning lots of new things. Recently, I was helping our attorney prepare for trial, and it was so interesting. I was working in a law firm before this, in Canada, but that was real-estate law.  This is litigation, and it is completely different. I definitely prefer Litigation. 

So since, I’m working now, you may be asking.  Well who takes care of the children? Well…

Benjamin is in 1st grade now, which means he spends most of his day at school.  He has after school care.  Most days he gets picked up by us right away.  Sometimes he has to wait a little bit, but he is well taken care of.  He’s a big boy now. I mean look at him. He’s growing and he is handsome. I don’t want him to grow up!!  Ugh… Soon he’s going to start liking girls... I can’t think about this right now.  Let’s move on. 

Jason is going to daycare/preschool. We found a new daycare in our area that also has a curriculum.  When we enrolled he was put in the two-year-old class, but they switch him over the threes because he is too advanced. I believe it, that kid can talk up a storm, and he’s super smart!  He knows his ABC’s (at the song...anyway).  Look at him; so cute. I don’t want him to grow up either…

I am usually gone to work by the time everyone wakes up.  So, Ruben gets the kids ready in the morning and drops them off. Most of the time he picks them up too because his job is more flexible than mine. Honestly, I hesitated working again because my worry was the kids.Ruben re-assured me multiple times that he would do everything in his power to help me and so far, he has kept true to his word.  So much, that I think that now Jason loves him more than me. Seriously. He cries for his dad! Even though this should make me feel worthless, it actually makes me really happy. My kids should love their dad that much. He is a good man!  

And so that’s it for now. I haven't blogged because... to be completely honest, I just haven't made time. We are very active in church, and so any time that we have free we spent it together, or doing the extensive piles of laundry.  So that is the honest-to-God truth. 

I would like to promise to you that I will blog every week, but I have made that promise before and have failed.(sorry!)  I will, however, blog on some special occasions that are coming up.  So.. just follow me on social media, and you will know when I post. 

k bye.

Benjinisms

My boy turned 6 years this month.  YES, SIX! like, remember THIS post?  Although it seems like yesterday, it was actually quite a while ago.  I can't even believe I have a six-year-old.

In honor of his 6th birthday, his aunts and I decided that we were going to share some Benjinisms on twitter.  If you are wondering what that is, let me tell ya. Unlike Bushisms, they are not errors in public speaking. Benjinisms are just things that Benji has said that are smart and/or cute.  Yes, I created this because, well, I can. Anyways, He is a pretty smart fella and also is a "mad cutie", as my husband would say.

Let's begin.

"We are a family and we are in love" - He still believes this to be true, and it is my favorite thing ever!

"I will have a duplicate of what he is having," said to a waitress, and she was quite impressed.

"Mom, when I went on your iPad, I did some research on jets, and I found a jet that is named Jason" -  Also, the other day he went on youtube and actually searched "Research on Crocodilians".

This coming from his tia (aunt) Mary: 
Me doing a crossword puzzle "umm, Cindy, what's another word for Intelligent?"
Cindy does not respond.
Benjamin: "Oh Tia, BRILLIANT, or SMART!"
Me: "Thanks, Benji, your mom is no help"

This is straight from his Tia Ruth:
Today is Benjamin's sixth birthday and we are going to share some of his brilliance, as well as his idea that because he loves you, certain questions are dumb:

Benji: "Tia, let's go get pizza."
Me: "Will you share your pizza with me?"
Benji: "Yeah! I love you!"

The last one is from his tia Ray: (he has lots of tias)
Tia: "You are my family"
Benji: "yes, and family is everything"

How did we get so blessed with a smart and loving son!
You can find more #Benjinisms on twitter.  I will be posting.

Also, I will continue speaking about my move in the next post. If you have any questions about my move, ministry or anything, you can leave a comment or message me. I will be doing a Q&A. So, stay tuned for all the good stuff!

“He’s a natural leader” she said...

Hey there,

Long time no talk. Life has sure changed since the last time I posted something. The last time I posted was about Jason's first birthday.  I posted that way back in February, soooooo I am thinking we need to have a little update post(s).

Let's start with Benjamin,

My boy is five now. He is almost done his first year of school EVER! Can you believe?  Just yesterday I was dropping him off for his first day of school, and walking away with such a heavy heart. Let me tell ya, it never goes away.  You get used to dropping them off, but when I see him walk into the school my heart is once again heavy.  I assume it will always be this way, and I will just have to endure it. Just like every other parent has had to.   All you can do is pray!

I have attended my first parent-teacher conference. You know how they say the way to make a person feel good, is to compliment their child?  Well I have never left a place feeling so proud. The teacher raved about how MY SON, was such a compassionate person, and how he was aware of other people’s feelings. She told me about the time where Benjamin had a “grand idea”, and it was to build a pretend living room station, where all the kids could go “watch TV” and eat their snacks, AND how he formulated a plan and got all the children involved to accomplish his vision. You  “He’s a natural leader” she said, as I fanned my peacock tail. It was only for a mere moment though, because I quickly was remind that child in not my own, but belongs to God. So as I returned to my vehicle my eyes filled with tears as I thanked God for my amazing child.


Benji is a great big brother.  This title includes; looking out for his little brother, holding hands with him to ensure there are no runaways, watching your iPad together, sharing your snack and fighting over anything.  Yes they fight, they cry and mom has to be the mediator.  Just the other day I made them hug it out and they both cried. It was quite comical, but I maintained my I-mean-business face. I mean, they shouldn’t fight, but that’s what a healthy sibling relationship requires. If you have never fought with your siblings… well you might have unresolved issues. Lol. OH in case you are wondering, YES the one year old is quite the defender.

How much my boy has grown! Facebook reminds me of that almost every day.  I always go on there just to see what memories will pop up and almost every day, it is baby Benji 5 YEARS AGO! Incredible. Tear. BUT what really did it, was when my brother in law sent me a video he found of Baby Benjamin who didn’t even know how to talk yet. I cried.  Apparently the more your kids grow, the more you cry.  Truth. I cry all the time, and there are no holding back these floodgates. ha!

I will never forget when Benji approached me and said “Mom, we are family and we are in love!”, and what an accurate description that was!

Things Benji Says

My Ben turned 4 about a month ago. FOUR!  When his birthday rolled around I was cheerful and motivated.  Then arrived the day I had to register him for school and basically it all went downhill from there. Now, I find myself just staring at him, and remembering when he was tiny and I had to do everything for him.  How I had to feed him, change him, bathe him, and soothe him, and how I would hold him until he withered off to sleep. He pretty much doesn’t need my help for that anymore.  Oh how they grow!  *tears*

In those moments of thought, I find myself wondering how an older Benjamin will be, because as a child he is full of life. The most entertaining person I know.  He’s a child comedian, a loving person, and a complete mama’s boy. (yay to me. He will love me forever)  I'm pretty sure you are wondering what makes me think all these things about him.. and well let's just take a little peek into this mind of his...

THINGS BENJI SAYS:

“Eww mom, something smells terrible, it’s disgusting” as we enter the elevator and someone is in there. Nice Benji.

“Mom, she is so rude.” About an ungrateful lady Benjamin held the door for. Don’t ever forget your manners around this child. He also likes to tell me that Eunice, his Sunday school teacher, says not to be rude. 

“Hello, what would you like to order?” In a perfect British accent! *High-five*

“Mom, if I don’t have a cookie, I’m going to DIE!”  Cookie Monster.

“Please, Call me your highness”  Relaaaaaaxx!  

 “We are a family of Superheroes.  I am The Flash, Dad is Superman, Jason is Green Lantern, and you are wonder woman” Extensive knowledge of superheroes. I don't want to be wonder woman, geez!

 “MOM! You look like a princess” as he looks at my wedding picture “You are a princess and dad is your knight.”

“Mom today I want to pray for the Rescue Bots… They need help to save Griffin Rock” Just a cartoon Benji.

“Jesus, Give my dad lots of money so he can buy me so many toys” I wish that was my only worry too.

“Mom, the Bible says don’t make your son angry” this is true.

“Mom, the Bible says be nice to your husband” This is also true

“Mom, the bible says give your son a snacks” I have yet to read this.

“We are in love. You and dad and me and Jason. We are a family, and we are in love. Jesus loves families in love” My heart is warm.

 AND There’s more where that came from.

I love Benjamin.  He makes me laugh, cry, angry, and sad. Basically emotional. Oh and let’s face it, only someone who you truly love can make you feel all these emotions. I look forward to seeing what else his little mind comes up with. So onwards to 4!!! 

Fort Building

Since Benjamin and I have been spending so much time together, we have found some creative ways to keep entertained. Since I am in the lookout for a tee-pee or tent for the kid's room, and felt inspired, I decided to make a fort with Benji.

This is our very first fort. 

When Benji woke up that morning, we moved the dining tables chairs and built a simple little fort. It was very plain and basic, but Benjamin had so much fun with that simple fort, that the next day he requested another fort.  This time, however, we were a bit more creative.  I say we are getting good at this fort building business.

Things that happen in the fort: 

There is, of course, your basic fort usages. For example: Movie watching, lounging, nap times, snack times and story times.  These moments are wonderful & tender for every mama. (and dadas too) 

Then, at moments, it becomes a home owned by Mrs. Mama. She is pregnant and makes a living selling Pupusas and Tamales.  Her number one customer is a gentleman by the name of Benjamin, who always stops by after work. She only speaks Spanish, but he understand every word she says. He seems to always responds in English, though, and As you may have imagined, there is a slight communication error in this scenario, and orders often incorrect. Oops. 

When Miss Mama is not living there, the home belongs to Mr. Benj.  I'm not sure what this young man does in his home... I only know he is ALWAYS in need of repairs.  He pretty much spends all his time calling the plumber for overflowing toilets, or the roofer because his roof has flown off or electrician because his house was hit by lightning and is now out of power.  Mr. Benj is also quite popular. Many door-to-door sales people come knocking to offer supplies and fixed hydro rates, and he also gets many visits from faithful evangelists delivering the good news of salvation. Halleluyer! 

It is also place to hold wrestling matches. Personally, I think these matches are rigged because one of the contestants is a giant compared to the other, and the little one always wins. Hmm..

Oh and lastly, I must not forget, it is also a war shelter...where one can hide and spy on enemies with awesome green binoculars. We must not forget we are living at war here, people!!!

These photographs were taken with the smart phone LG G3. 

Right before the move

Dress: Forever21,   Top: H&M,   Shoes: Aldo,  Bag: Danier   Sunglasses: Forever21

We moved. We need more space now that we will be a family of four. Before the dreaded process, however, I took my little man out for a celebration. "Mom, i would like a coffee, and a cookie, please" he requested. It's not coffee, it's hot chocolate. He calls it coffee because it looks like the one mama drinks. I said to him "go sit down and I will bring it to you", he did so very obediently, and chose a small round table for two.

So there we were just him and me chit chatting. He was telling about all his friends, and why they were his friends, and very few selected best friends, besides his mom and dad, of course. He then pointed out the bird across the street, and explained to me how it was trying to find something to eat. If you know my son, you know that he is a chatterbox.

After he was done chatting, He looked at me and said "mom, we should go", and while he packed his cookie he stated "This is for my brother."

I'm not really sure when this growing up happened, but it makes me a little bit more confident that Benjamin is going to be an excellent brother, and the quite the photographer, as he took all the photographs of me. (with a little instruction, of course)

Photographs taken with the Smart Phone LG G3

There is hope for the future

Being a parent has presented itself to be quite the challenge. Even though you try and do everything right children have a mind of their own, as I am beginning to realize. I’m not exactly sure when my lovely sweet little boy turned into an over-exaggerating-tantrum-throwing-“I’m not your friend anymore”-rude-child-"I threw out everything you have taught me out the window-person-thing .  It may be a phase or the fact that he is three and a half, but I am not too fond of it, and I can only wonder how this child will as he gets older, and if we are actually being fit parents. 

Even though… there are many times when this child sheds some sort of light to our parenting skills.  For example when this above-mentioned-child who has said we are no longer friends walks up to me and says, proceeded with a hug and kiss, “I’m sorry mama, I will never do it again” and “Can we be best friends again?”  :) 

Or the times like the time when he pretends to take the baby out of my belly and takes the baby to the room to play together, and as we head to the laundry room he remembers he forgot the baby in the room, but he’s not worried because the baby is safely in his/her bed playing on the iPad, and we will be right back.

Or like when we were sitting in the balcony and he asks me where outer space is, and I say way past all those clouds and then he asks me if I could buy him a telescope so he can look into outer space.

When the nice man from my building got down from his car to open the door for us Benji was so surprised and said “THANK YOU! Wow mama, he so nice he opened the door for us.  He is a nice boy!”

When are about to eat he says “I will pray by myself… Thank you Jesus for the Food, Amen” or when he extend his arms out as far as he can and says “Jesus loves you this much”

When he forms the church band in our living room and says “Dad you be Isa (pianist), Mom you be Dada (guitarist), and I’ll be Danny (drummer), and proceeds to sing a church song”

When he talks to the people riding the elevator.  NO…actually he talks to everyone in general not just the elevator. He is quite friendly.

When without me having to asks he says "Here mom, have some, I want to share with you" and if I decline he says "I want to share with the baby" 

When he hugs Ruben and me and says we are his best friends and his favorites.
                     
So, I guess this child has more good in him, then I acknowledge.  I guess we are good parents after all!

Ps. Do you see the bandage of his leg? That is a battle wound. 

Benji vs. the ground.

The Act of Bavery

As you know we recently took a trip to African Lion Safari.  Well toward the end of the day we walked by an Obstacle Course.  Of course Benjamin wanted to have a go at it. Unfortunately, he was about an inch too short. He still tried to run in and Of course I held him back.  I saw many older kids there, and I didn't want my son to get hurt by one of them. Benjamin was upset but quickly forgot, or so I thought.  Well Ruben was playing with him at the little kids playground, so I decided this was a good time to walk away for a bit by myself.  Well when I came back they were not at the playground, and well...  This is what happened in the words of my husband.. 
 
"Today I took my son to the playground at the Lion Safari.  There was a sign that said must be this tall to enter. Benji was a couple inches to short so I told him "Your not big enough you can't do it" 
I dragged him away and told him to play at the little kids playground and he was not impressed. He had that look in his eye like "this isnt' challenging enough". 
After a few minutes he made his way back to the big playground and I told him "Your not big enough". 
Anyway I let him go in and the lady at the gate was looking at him like go ahead little boy you wont make it up the first wall. To my surprise he climbed the wall. With a lot of difficulty, but he climbed the wall. He went down the slide made his way through the ball pit, that was up to his chest, got to the next obstacle. He did not know how to climb. He stepped onto the rope ladder and fell off. My heart was pounding in my chest because I thought he would fall off and break a leg. I wanted to go in and pull him out, but I didn't want to tell him he couldn't do it either. He didn't even look over at me, and I knew he didn't want to give up. He wanted to prove he could climb the next wall. He managed to get onto the first step and all the kids were passing by him quickly and he observed how they climbed and he began his climb. He was going so slow, and all the kids were going by him quickly and they were shaking the ladder as they went. I wanted to pull him out, but I didn't want him to think I was holding him back from his goal. To my surprise he cleared rope ladder got to the top. When he got to the top I kept thinking he wont go down the slide its to tall. I should go to the other side to encourage him to slide down. When I got to the other side he had already slid down, and was laughing of joy.  I knew he was laughing at me saying I told you I could do it. He tried to run back to the start of the line and I grabbed him and said "good job you have nothing to prove anymore." 

I am extremely proud of my son.. but also now know that I can't leave those two alone.  haha

He used my son to comfort me.

Last week was a hard week for us.  I have had a couple of bad weeks in the past few months, but last week was possibly the hardest week.  I found myself, one evening sitting on my bed talking with God.  I said to Him, "God, whenever anyone needs someone to talk to, or is upset; I am there for them.  When someone needs advice; I am there.  When someone needs encouragement; I am there.  When someone needs prayer; I am there... but what happens when I am the one who needs advice, encouragement, and prayer.  Who will be there for me?"  I felt like that clown that made all the sad people laugh, but when the clown was sad no one was there to make him laugh.  

I was just sitting there in silence staring at the blank wall, when all the of the sudden I felt these small little arms wrap around me, and a sweet little voice that said "It's Otay, mama"  Yes that was enough to make me cry like a baby.  I'm not sure if Benjamin understood why I was crying, but he just held on to me until I finally calmed down. 

I understood that God was telling me, that I could go to Him, that He would be there for me whenever I need Him.  He used my son to comfort me, and to let me know that He is with me, and I was reminded of God's promise in ISAIAH 41:10...

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
    Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
    I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

You know what, I'm ok now.  God knew what I needed.  He's amazing! 

I thank Benji for allowing himself to be used by God. 

 I know this little guy will a great man of God.