Isabella's first visit to a pool

Katia and I took Naomi and Isabella to the pool this afternoon. For Isabella, it was her first ever visit to any pool. At first she wasn't too excited about the pool, clinging to me and not wanting much of her body to be in the water. Once I sat her in my lap, in the very shallow part of the pool, she started warming up to the pool. Then, she started having oodles of fun!

As is obvious here.

A funny little one, yes she is.

They're "play dates" consist of looking at each other and taking toys and such from each other.
But, it's great to get them used to being around other little ones.

She LOVES to make big splashes.

A mommy / baby moment.

She loved it when I dragged her all around the pool in Katia & Naomi's floating device. We stayed between forty minutes and an hour. Would have stayed longer, but somebody wanted to nurse! How did I know this? She was doing the signing for it!

A healthy version of Twinkies, Tokyo Banana

Junko gave me this treat, knowing that I like bananas. Tried it when we whipped out a bunch of Asian desserts.

Doesn't this look like a twinkie? Okay, not quite as yellow. And, better than twinkies! Tasted much better and I'm sure it's not bad, in terms of contents.

Today's lunch

Had such a splendid time with Junko today. We went to HEB first, where I bought groceries to last Troy while Isabella & I are gone and groceries to make him enough chili to last a week. Then we came back and I cooked us two dishes for lunch, while Junko fed Isabella.

Asparagus & shrimp dish.

Chinese eggplant, mushroom, & tomato dish.

Junko liked the dishes so much, I sent some home with her. I might put some version of those recipes on my recipe blog. Those who know me well know that as a general rule, I don't cook by recipe. I often cook by my sense of taste, smell, and familiarity with the foods. That means that I rarely make the same thing exactly the same way every time. Cooking is like a work of art to me, and I'm continually perfecting the dishes.

This is a cucumber and chicken dish Junko put together. Yummy, yummy!

After lunch, we had tea and sweets.

checking out utpa's new gym, a family outting

The day before yesterday, Saturday, was UTPA's unofficial preview (of the brand spanking new gym). Of course we weren't going to miss that opportunity to take a leisurely tour of the place.

Since we weren't planning on doing any actual weight-lifting or cardiovascular activity that day, we brought along Boo boo. She's sitting in her new stroller, by the way. Needed something a bit smaller than the wonderful stroller Troy's parents gave us and a bit more sturdy than the free stroller I got from Toys 'r Us, with which to travel to the D.C. area. There's a canopy to shield her head from the sun, but we left it at home.

A side view of the gym.

One of two (main) entrances to the gym. This is the entrance that faces Schunior.

Too cute, too cute.

Jim's giving us the detailed tour. Jim is the director of gym, a big gun UTPA hired to build the gym into the impressive facility you see before you. We know Jim & Marilyn Watson through church. Lucky us!

Check out the fun fountain. And yes, that's a straw roof you see in the back! Feeling tropical, yet?

Isn't this just the bomb?

This week is free admission to faculty, staff, and students. Unfortunately, I can't bring Isaboo to the pool, because the minimum age requirement is 4 years. Dang.

The other main entrance.

Impressive rock climbing wall? I think so. I'd love to learn to climb, using that wall!

Beautiful architecture that hangs above the rock climbing wall.

A modern bench, to match the rest of the modern furniture in the facility.

Plenty of seating area for students, faculty, and staff to lounge.

Free wi-fi access in most of the areas of the gym!

I thought this was such a cool looking seating area, upstairs.

Much more impressive than the old dungeon of a gym that UTPA had for years and years (with no renovation).

That's a fair number of dumbells, for the size of the UTPA population, I think.

Let's end the tour with the best, shall we?

My Mother's Day present

Thursday of last week, the 23rd, Monte & Troy stayed behind, at our place, and kept watch over Maritza (Diana & Monte's 9 year old daughter) & Isabella, while we enjoyed gals' night out. Diana and I went to see Hairspray. It was such a hoot!

Instead of lugging around a huge, heavy diaper bag, I got to carry a purse! This was my Mother's Day present from Troy.

Ladies night out and Isabella's search for me

Awhile back, when Manda & Johnny were still here, the guys went to see Transformers in the theater. The first time, Johnny, Monte, and Troy didn't get to see much, because the theater had to be evacuated. The second time, only Monte and Troy could go. Diana, Maritza, Isabella, and I hung out while the guys were out. Diana and I talked about doing a date where we'd go see a movie, while the guys stayed with Maritza and Isabella. We did it today!

Diana, Monte, and Maritza came over around 5:30. Diana & I headed out just after 6 o'clock. Dropped by to check on Tamarindo (Junko's cat). Still had some time to kill before the movie, so we went to Starbucks. I had one of my ole favorite drinks, caramel apple cider. Then off we went, to see Hairspray. Was absolutely fantastic. Both of us laughed our way to a large part of the movie. Glad Diana can appreciate musicals. The acting was great, the dancing was fantastic, loved everything. Travolta was convincing as a mom!

Came back to see what everyone else was doing. Troy had just successfully gotten Isaboo to fall asleep (at 9:40 pm). Meanwhile, Maritza and Monte were towards the end of The Little Mermaid.

Asked Troy whether Isabella missed me. Certainly did. The skeptic in me thought that he said that to be nice and kind to me. After company left, Troy told me that Maritza had to bring Isabella back into the living room many times, because she had ventured off towards our bedroom, looking for me. How did he figure she was looking for me? Because on two different occasions this week, when I was taking a shower and Troy was watching Isabella, she made a b-line for the bathroom.

Half way through my shower, I'd be hearing a little baby girl making all kinds of noise, and the noise was not coming through the baby monitor. I'd peer through the shower curtain, only to find an excited, dancing (on her belly) baby smiling back at me. As soon as I closed the shower to continue doing what I was doing, she became quite upset.

How sweet, she DID miss her mommy.

Wonderful night. Actually, good day. Troy watched Isabella this afternoon, while I took care of some stuff. Then, had a very enjoyable, spirit-lifting evening. Now I'm tired and want to go to bed. Nighty-night folks.

Our bundle of joy, a very vocal one, yup

2007-8-19

Life just got a whole lot busier

Wow, life just got loads busier. She's pulling herself up on all kinds of things, from diaper bags to tables. She also dares to try and cruise furniture. Love our little munchkin.

2007-8-17

2007-8-17

Precious one

Troy and I both noticed that Isabella was a bit more high maintenance today. Clingy and didn't want to be alone. Wanted to be held A LOT. Wanted to be in contact with me A LOT. Poor girl. Going through literal growing pains. On top of all that, still teething. Drools like a rabid creature, only she's not rabid. Hee, hee.

2007-8-14

She's going to love being on stage.
What a ham, she is.

This little princess is such a charmer!

2007-8-9

Look at her. Look at her! This little princess melts my heart and makes my life so much more delightful.

Have had a rough few days, but looking at these pictures of our darling makes all the roughness go away.

A new dress at no cost to me

2007-8-8

Manda-Manders gave me this dress. Neat, huh? I like it a lot. Can't wear it to church, just yet, because if Isabella decides she wants to nurse, I'll have to take the whole dress off.

Can you tell a baby lives at our home? My, Isabella's getting longer and bigger!

Cell phone upgrades

Yesterday, I discovered that both of our cell phones are eligible for phone upgrades. So, I checked out the phone selection we had that would cost us no extra money. Then, I researched user reviews on each of the phones. At the end of the day, one of the big differences I saw among the phones was battery usage. Since battery life is one of the more important features in a cell phone, we ended up going with a cell phone that has a 8 hour continuous talk time. It allegedly has a 9 hour talk time, but an independent cell phone testing service said it's good for 8 hours. That works for me!



This is a picture of the phone we both currently have and have had for over two years. It's a Motorola V551.


This is the camera that we'll be enjoying soon. I think we're getting the black version. These are Sony Ericsson W300i. The features that I like about it include: 8 hours talk time in battery life, Bluetooth wireless capability, and speaker phone. Other bonuses? Video and music streaming, walk man music player, video recording and playback, external stereo speakers, stereo headset, data cable. An unexpected perk? Airplane mode.

Now that I've procrastinated awhile, time to go work on the next Sunday school lesson before going to bed.

Our anniversary, we've been married 5 years.

We've been married five years, as of today. That's half a decade folks, and I'm really excited about. Spent the day together, and what a treat that was.

This morning, after all three of us got fed and lathered with sunscreen and packed with various necessities, we headed to South Padre Island. Got there around 1:30-ish. Isabella took a nap on the way there, which was excellent.

Took a nice stroll along the beach.

This is what happens when I'm taking the picture with a really big camera that's hard to handle. I look like I have a double chin, and I'm squinting!


This is what happens when an unexperienced person takes the picture. We look tiny, and the sand and water behind us overwhelms the people in the picture.

What a poser she is!

What a cutie.

After the beach, we rushed home, dropped some stuff off, picked up some of Isabella's stuff, and dropped Isabella off a Alice, Jeff, and Andrea (their 8 or 9 year old daughter)'s home. While they watched her, we went to Kumori, where we took our time eating loads of food. We ordered a shrimp tampanyake (I'm sure I butchered the spelling of that) and four different roles. We left nothing unfinished. Yummy, yummy. Didn't have to worry about entertaining a little one while we ate. And, we actually had adult conversations a majority of the time!

The night's over, and I am DEAD tired. Good night.