Aperture 3

Right before classes let out for the summer I picked up a student edition of Aperture 3. It is like Photoshop but for Mac. This picture is one of the ones I worked on first. Doing this is surprisingly easy. I am currently on the look out for a how to book for the program. I know I have only scratched the surface on the capabilities of Aperture.

Searching through the internet for tutorials is frustrating. There is so much junk out there and then you come across more sites that require payment to view their content. Really, like I am going to give you money for information I am not even sure you have.

What information have you searched for on the internet only to find junk and pay to view web sites?

Scrapbooking

I scrapped 2 pages for Tristan's book yesterday. I will put up pictures later. It was the first time I used Chipboard and discovered that it wasn't that hard. Although it did take me forever to finally decided what color it was going to be. I was using heat embossing with glitter.

Ray is with his grandparents visiting my sister and her son this week. I wish we could have been able to go.

Middle of the summer

I am off for a few days from work. I took the days off about a month ago, thinking that we could spend the time with my brother-in-law and his wife and their baby, but Alex is working and we can't go down there. Oh well. This makes my time free for Ray and Mommy days. Yesterday we went to Playfront park. It was a ton of fun. Way better than it used to be.

Old Playfront park was a child's dream. Lots of places to hide, sand to play in, and it was made of wood. It was also a parent's nightmare; lots of places to loose your kid, sand to make a kid really dirty, and it was made of wood to tears and splinters. Also there were like 5 or 6 different exits, so even if you had a bigger kid who didn't need constant supervision at a playground you had to be on him or her like glue. Playfront park is located right next to I35 so it is very scary.

Today Ray and I are going to the beach. Just us again today. He gets to play with his sand toys today. Tristan is at daycare today, he loves playing with the other babies. Why can't Little B's be in Duluth instead of in Barnum.

I can't believe the summer is half over already. I can't wait until September 2nd, we are going to the MN State Fair that day. It is Thrifty Thursday!

Shutterfly

Tristan is getting bigger every day. I have created a Shutterfly account and a share page. It rocks. I can easily upload my pictures and create journal entries. here is the link to the page:



there is a password to get into the page so email me and I will send it to you. Easter was fun. We spent the day at my parents house with my dad's brother and his wife. We did have a surprise at the end of the day. Lacey their Pomeranian had a puppy! They didn't even know she was preggers. LOL. She only had one. They said Lacey is getting fixed after this. They have been trying to prevent pregnancies by separating the two dogs but obviously that failed. It was warm out so we were able to spend a bunch of time outside. Ray was playing in his "cool car." It is a coop car and he loves it.

Ray is a fanatic about Disney's Cars. He practically has the entire movie cast in toy cars. He calls Lightning McQueen "Rookie." He would watch the movie all day every day if we let him. Everyday when we get home from daycare he runs into the playroom and yells out to us "turn on cool car movie mom, please?" Ray is a very polite kid. We have been consistent with him on saying please, thank you and excuse me. It really shows. Last Wednesday we went to mom's and colored eggs with Becky and her 4 year old grandson Jason. They were playing outside with the "cool car" and Jason was hogging the car. Ray asked him nicely if he could have a turn, Jason refused. He eventually had to be told to get out and give Ray a turn by Becky. Ray said thank you to Becky, and when Jason was pouting Ray kept asking him if he was ok. Ray didn't even throw a fit when Jason wouldn't get out of the car. He was visibly frustrated but he didn't freak out. Jayne our daycare lady says that Sylvi (a 1 year old girl) constantly takes toys away from Ray and he doesn't get mad or tattle he just waits until Jayne says give it back and then says thank you to Sylvi. I can imagine how cute it is.

I can't believe the semester is almost over. I am going to be registering for classes on Monday. WOW. I am going to be in all upper division classes starting this fall. I have finally made my decision on what my major is going to be. Health Care Management with a minor in Human Resource Management. :) Speaking of UMD, Alex registered for classes on Thursday. He is excited about finally being at UMD.

I am going back to work full time June 1st. I am happy that I can stay out on leave until then. I will have about 2 weeks of time off with no school before I go back. We were going to fly down to AZ and visit Alex's family but we were unable to go because of other financial obligations. We are really bummed about this.

The clock says 2:20am dang. I'm up because Tristan was hungry and needed a change and then couldn't fall back asleep. So I decided to update my blog. Not sure if anyone is reading this but either way it is a good way to my thoughts out.

Alex turned 27 yesterday. I asked him a few days ago what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said I want to just stay home and have a quiet night. So when Matt called I let him come over. They love to play Street Fighter 4 for hours on end. That is exactly what they did. On our way to bed Alex told me he really enjoyed today. I am glad. He spent 2 birthdays in a row in Kuwait. His 24th was right after he deployed. I was 7 months pregnant with Ray. The second one was right after he had been home on R & R. I felt so bad for him.

Well I am going to go to bed for a little while. Tristan will be up very soon for another feeding. I don't mind this time is going to go so fast. He will be sleeping through the night before long. Goodnight.

Tristan Alexander Henriquez

Tristan is now a week old. He hasn't slept in his crib yet. He sleeps on my chest every night. I don't mind I love the bonding I get with him. I think part of the reason is that the crib is in Ray's room and the couple of times we have tried to lay him in there he cries. I am afraid of waking Ray up. He was woke up a few nights ago and was highly emotional. I feel so bad for him. His life has been completely turned upside down. I feel like I am neglecting him when I am feeding Tristan. He wants to snuggle up next to me and can't because Tristan is on the boob. I am trying to make sure he has alone time with me every day but don't always get to. Especially yesterday because on Tuesday's and Thursday's I am in class until 5 so I don't get home until 5:30 and his bed time is 8pm. As soon as I got home it was time to feed Tristan and that is an hour to an hour and a half. So it was 7pm by the time I was done with that Ray was on the potty. That is a half hour process for that. He went poop and pee, YAY!! So it was 7:45 by the time we were done with rewards and changing into Jammies. He had only 15 minutes with me to snuggle and I just feel so guilty.

I am doing the best I can with both of them and just have to trust that Ray will be just fine. Thankfully I am not doing this all alone. I made my first successful trip to Target on Monday all by my self with both boys. Wow is that a stressful experience. Ray was so good. I am so glad he is not one of those horrible children in the stores who melts down with a no. He hasn't been given a toy every time we go to the store so he doesn't beg for toys or candy. Working at Target, I have seen all types of meltdowns. I can't believe parents let their children act this way. I just want to bitch slap the parents. The worst part of it all is they usually give in to the screaming child. If I wasn't working and at risk of being fired I would tell them way to reinforce the tantrum. You just taught your child: if I just throw a fit then mommy and daddy will give me what I want. IDIOTS. We wonder why society is going to hell in a hand basket. I am not afraid of giving Ray a time out in public. You can make any spot a time out spot.

School is going really well. I should be spending more time on Statistics. I gave up last night on the homework. I will do it anyway because there is a test on the material next week. I got a 93% on my Business Law paper and am getting an A in that class.

The Hospital Waiting Game

So we arrived at the hospital at 7:30 this morning and are waiting patiently for Tristan Alexander to make his grand entrance into the world. Right now contractions are only about 3 minutes apart on the Oxytocin. They are starting to get stronger.

Ray is having a MANday with Grandpa. We took him to Grandma and Grandpa's on Saturday. I guess last night he told Grandma that Tristan couldn't come to grannies house. LOL. This morning when she told him Tristan was coming he said Big Brother. So I think he might be starting to get it. We did pick up a gift from Tristan for Ray. They will be sharing a bedroom and the crib is all set up for him. In fact everything is set up for Tristan.

Alex is having a great time. He says he feels like he is making up for missing Ray's birth. This is all new to him since he was in Iraq last time. Right now he is next to me on his computer playing Westward III. It is very entertaining to watch him play.

I am so glad that the doctors are letting me be induced. I was really worried about going into labor in the middle of class. We are on Spring Break right now. I wonder how many College students have been able to say they had a baby during spring break. I bet there will be a few babies conceived this week. LOL.

The end is near

I am so excited. The pregnancy is nearing the end. I am completely ready for Tristan Alexander to make his grand entrance into the world. I don't think Ray gets it yet. He is going to share his room with Tristan. School seems to be going well. I just hope that I don't go into labor while I am in class.