Just a matter of time

We knew it would just be a matter of time before we would acquire a drum set of our very own. Now that we have a little more space, it was the next logical thing to do (according to my husband). This second hand set sprung up mid March at an insanely low price for an electric set, so he did not hesitate in snatching it. Here he is trying out the drum set in our living room before I relegated it to it's new living space in our basement. Words cannot describe his happiness. He even took it to Church, that's right, Church-- to the ward talent show.

Sorry no pic and the vid is too large to upload here. If you can imagine it, here is how the "skit" played out. The curtain opens while the slow prelude of "Pass Me Not" (by Gladys Knight and the SUV Choir) plays and you see his drum set. Out comes Bill pretending to sweep the stage. As he's sweeping, he spots one drumstick and then another. He slips them in his back pocket. He keeps sweeping and then spots the drum set. He sits and immediately starts playing the moment the music speeds up. He arranged it so that the audience could hear the drums just a tad bit louder than the song. In the end, he could not help himself and he did some terrific rock star quality drumming that, of course, wasn't part of the end of the song, but was fun.

Now, it's only a matter of time before Liam starts up drumming. Thank goodness that drum set is in the basement.

Here's my little man at the drums during daddy's practice time before the talent show.

He had to set aside some time during practice for some monkeying around.

Liam also participated in the talent show. It was totally his idea. He grabbed this bugle, packed it up in a little backpack and brought it with him. He had planned on doing the Superman theme, but when the moment came, he went with the Star Wars theme (no big surprise there). He didn't actually play the bugle, he only hummed into it. Still, very cute!

China doll

We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary last September 17th. We traditionally look at our wedding album and after Liam goes to sleep, we watch our wedding video. We giggle in delight to see ourselves looking our very best and so in love. It's also really fun to see our family and friends celebrating with us. Every year we spot something new and fun.

At one point in the evening while we watched the video, my husband let out a deep sigh and said, "Honey, you looked so beautiful on our wedding day. If I had the money, I would have a china doll made of you in your wedding gown." I was left teary-eyed and speechless. I know I'm not china doll material, but this was one of the best compliments of my life. Oh, how I love this man!!

A few thoughts on my husband as Bishop

I didn't do a blog post about my husband becoming a Bishop back in June, 2008. It is sacred and private. I can express some of my feelings here and now, and say that I know it was an inspired calling, one that was humbly accepted. 

Serving the Lord in any capacity is an honor, but to serve as Bishop is huge and it comes with great responsibility. It was prayed about and a confirmation of that calling came in the most beautiful setting imaginable. I was sure that my husband would do his very best to lead and care for the ward. We called his parents in Australia who are not members of the Church and they were happy even though they don't know much about the Church or about a calling as huge as this one. My family who are members of the Church were, of course, happy and they knew what it would entail. 

With that said, it was hard to keep the news to ourselves until it was official, but we did it. We had our poker faces on and marched along doing our regular duties for a few days. That Saturday morning, I gave a ride home to a couple of sisters that were with me at a stake activity. A conversation ensued with regard to who would be called as Bishop and a few names were tossed around. One sister finally said, "They will probably end up bringing him in from another ward or stake because there is no one here in this ward that is qualified." I must confess that I felt a little heartbroken, but I quickly set those feelings aside and replaced them with a deep sense of reverence for what would take place the very next day at Church. My husband was ordained and sustained as Bishop of our ward and quickly went to work with his two counselors, Brother VDG and Brother Yau. 

There was, of course, a learning curve and guidance from the Stake leadership at first, but he learned quickly and worked hard these past few years. His testimony and mine has increased exponentially, and we grew to deeply love the members of our ward. 

I won't go into it too much, but I can list a few interesting moments. He also became Justice of the Peace, so that meant that he had the authority to perform a civil marriage in the State of New York. He actually had the opportunity to marry a couple at Church. He was asked to preside and conduct a funeral service that was held at Church, too. Then, there were the many phone calls and e-mails from not only the Bishopric, but from members of the Church everywhere, some from halfway around the world. 

Whenever there was a phone call that required him to put on his Bishopric hat, he immediately slipped away to the bedroom, bathroom or the hallway of our building and there he would stay for anywhere from a half an hour to an hour, often times missing or pushing back a family activity. He would also sometimes have to leave us to see someone urgently. Needless to say, we always needed to make adjustments for these kinds of calls. Sundays were very long since he held a couple of meetings before Church services and numerous interviews immediately after. I would often sit alone during Sacrament Meeting. In fact, I haven't sat next to my husband during Sacrament Meeting in over four years. Many times I did sit together with the wife of one of his counselors who has three children, even though it was challenging to keep all the children somewhat reverent during the service. Equally as challenging was getting to Church  on Sunday morning. (Honestly, I don't know how single mothers manage without the extra help from their husband.) It also took a little while for me to get used to the vagueness of his communications with me concerning anything relating to his duties as Bishop, like when he got phone calls. I thought the secrecy was kind of funny, but I understood that confidentiality was of the utmost importance and I respected it. He would sometimes get a look on his face and I knew that the Bishop wheels in his head were turning. I took it to mean that he was thinking about a family in the ward, a member in particular or members for specific callings. 

Once a month, he had his interview with the Stake President. My husband has a deep respect for that man. He admires not only his excellent leadership qualities, but his deep love of Jesus Christ and his strong testimony of the Gospel. Then, there was the Bishopric training meetings every couple of months. He loved going to these and would come home just brimming with excitement over what he learned. These meetings in addition to everything else made his whole Sunday full of Church-related stuff. My husband was a very busy but happy man serving in this capacity. 

Now, fast forward two years to the present time. When my husband informed the Stake President of our plans to buy a house, he quickly and humorously reminded my husband of the five-year commitment of his calling, but he assured my husband that family came first and that there would be plenty of opportunities to serve in the Church wherever we moved. He really didn't want us to leave the stake and several times suggested that we look in certain neighborhoods within the stake. We really combed through them. Sadly, these were not affordable for us. Then, we had no other choice but to expanded our search. When we told him we had found a house in a different borough of NYC altogether, he was so disappointed, but I think he was happy for us, even though he and his wife are both perplexed with our choice of living in that part of town. You can tell they really love it here in Brooklyn. (We love Brooklyn, too! There is no other place like it, but that is a post for another day.) We always try to assure him that we are indeed moving into a lovely neighborhood. We will just have to invite them over, so they can see for themselves. 

The ward is a lot smaller, but we are sure there will be plenty to do to keep us busy. We look forward to these new opportunities to serve the Lord in that part of His vineyard. 

Big changes

My husband and I have experienced major changes in our lives in the past five years. In my opinion, that is a relatively short time for such monumental changes. These, of course, fall into the category of changes for the good:

Marriage, my moving to Brooklyn, a wonderful pregnancy, a baby, my husband being ordained and set apart as Bishop, the purchase of our house, working hard on said house to make it move-in ready, packing and preparing for the big move, and lastly, my husband being released as Bishop. This last one just happened at Church today.

Coming home after having been released as Bishop

I'm happy and sad. It's kind of hard to put it into words. Our hearts are full with love and gratitude for the many blessings we have received and for our stronger testimony of Jesus Christ and His Church.

We are experiencing a myriad of mixed emotions right now, happy and sad. Liam knows that something is up. He hates all the packing and will unpack every chance he gets. My husband is very excited about the house and is doing the best that he can to fix it up nicely for us. We have been working hard to get it move-in ready and we come home exhausted. We love the new neighborhood, but every time we drive back and circle our current neighborhood looking for parking, we can't help but point out all the cool stuff we will be missing out on. But I will leave that for another post, IF I can get to it. Too busy packing!

I do hope that our Brooklyn peeps will not feel that it is too far for a visit. I expect them to come visit as often as possible. Who knows? Maybe they will like it and decide to follow us? One can only wish.

This kind of change is good. The time has come for us to finally own a house with a backyard and all. It's a dream come true for us. Yes, change is good.

Liam and his friends on our ride to Church

 Our dear, patient friend as the chauffeur

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

...well, actually not a long time ago and not that far away either.....this little family of three went to the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island to attend Star Wars in Concert.

Liam starring as young Anakin Skywalker (with a chocolate-covered face)

There was no way we were not going to this event. Only a serious fan would go to a concert to listen to the best of the musical scores of all six Star Wars movies (originally composed by the great John Williams), performed by the 86-piece Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and Choir, while viewing a mix of clips from all six movies in perfect synchronization, and with a bonus laser light show. It was quite the production. To further remove any doubt as to what kind of fans we are, we even went as far as dressing up our toddler as a young Anakin Skywalker with a costume that his daddy picked up for him last Halloween, accessorized, of course, with a lightsaber that his mama got for him.

This very same lightsaber was wielded around by our little Liam (hoisted up on daddy's shoulders) as we tried to make our way through the pressing crowds. Anybody would have been annoyed to be on the receiving end of one of his jabs, but not any of the Star Wars fanatics we encountered. They thought it was all too precious to see our little Liam as the spitting image of little Anakin. I even spotted a few people taking pictures of our young "Padawan". Most of the crowd sported Star Wars t-shirts while others donned a full Star Wars-themed costume.

Oh, and did I mention we had floor seats?!, Uh huh, yeah, and right by the aisle, too, because aisle seats are a must if you have to drag your wiggly toddler to any kind of theatrical event. Yes, it is safe to say we are real Star Wars fans.

When the lights quickly dimmed, we knew we were all going to experience the best in sound when the THX trailer burst out from their high tech sound systems. It was quickly followed by the Twentieth Century Fox march theme. Then came the Star Wars opening theme with these famous words displayed on the largest LED screen, standing three stories high, that has ever toured:

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."

These unmistakable words were met with nearly deafening cheers, applause, accompanied by loud whistling (mostly coming from my husband) and the squeals of delight and non-stop applause from our two and a half year old son who at this point was standing on his seat. The voice of James Earl Jones greeted us and introduced us to the narrator, Mr. C-3PO himself, Anthony Daniels.

It was interesting to see the different reactions of the audience. There were some humorous moments, mostly by the narrator whom at times flashed a gold vest whenever he went into C-3PO mode. At one point during Anthony Daniel's narration, an audience member near us let out the perfect wookiee growl after the mention of Chewbacca's name. For most of the time though, it almost felt like we were all at a rock concert. For my husband, who had seen the original Star Wars movie all of 15 times the week it premiered in Australia, twice on opening day, it was practically a dream come true. It was a spectacular show and worth every penny to see the expressions on both my boys, one of them who was teary-eyed. Guess who?

During the intermission, I walked with Liam a couple of yards up to the front to get a better view of some of the instruments. Then, he spotted some boys with illuminated lightsabers clear across the coliseum floor, so we maneuvered our way over there as fast as we could. As soon as Liam could make a clean break, he just ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, to join them in their "battle". So much fun!

After the show ended, we were dismissed with the Star Wars blessing of "May the force be with you." We made our way to view the exhibits that were positioned all around the coliseum, but the crowds made it nearly impossible to view them all. My husband, though, did not seem bothered since we had already seen a much larger and more detailed exhibit at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney when we were in Australia visiting his parents almost a year ago last December.

Here are some pictures* of our Star Wars-filled afternoon:

Having his fill of popcorn and cherry water (brought from home!)

Careful of the lightsaber-wielding Padawan!

It's C-3PO !!

"A guy can only be called 'Annie' so many times before he snaps!"
(Doesn't little Liam look a lot like this child actor, Jake Lloyd? -That hair!)

Having a little lightsaber fun during the intermission

I think Liam would rather go back to the children playing with the lightsabers. (A little smoke for the ambiance)

The grand finale!

Close-ups of the orchestra

Dirk Brosse, conductor extraordinaire

Our little Anakin checking out Yoda

Daddy is sporting a very cool t-shirt with Boba Fett's helmut made entirely of musical notes.

Liam was probably thinking, as we all were, "Dude, aren't you a little old to be doing this?"

So much Star Wars fun! Still curious about this spectacular event? Read about it here and take a look at this clip!


*My husband has some great shots, so when I do find them, I will include them later in this post.

A Wonderful Father

Liam and daddy (March 2007)

This year, Father's Day was celebrated in our home surprisingly without the usual photo ops. My son and I gave my husband his gift before Church. I know I had said humorously that I would give him a household gift along the lines of what I got for Mother's Day, but I thought it best to celebrate the occasion a different way. Instead, we gave him a three-fold gift that recognized, in simple terms, the kind of father that he is: sensible, wild and fun. We bought him an organic cotton golf tee, a Harley Davidson t-shirt, and a Star Wars sticker book for being such a die-hard Star Wars fan. (Okay, I had the t-shirt from way back when I intended on giving it to my brother, but didn't because it was the wrong size.)

A few words on my husband as a father. The only caring father figure my brother and I ever had growing up was our dear, favorite uncle Gonzalo. Then, Bill came into my life. It took getting married and having our son together to truly understand the reverent calling of fatherhood. My husband, Bill, is the most wonderful father to our son.

The way he took care of me while I was pregnant made me realize that he was endowed with fatherly intuition. It was quickly confirmed when he opened up a gift registry for me at Babies R' Us. Not surprisingly, he picked out all the things that I would have picked out. Some things that particularly struck me were the warming container for the baby wipes and the three bathrobes (Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and a plain blue one). Little did we know that our baby boy would well and truly need them (well, not all three bathrobes, exactly).

After Liam was born, Bill was an invaluable support to me as I was learning how to breastfeed. He went out of his way to look for The La Leche League International in Manhattan for breastfeeding advice. He bought me an infant feeding system that enabled me to feed Liam as he was learning how to latch on and nurse properly. Only Bill knew the perfect way to swaddle and burp Liam. After the Bensonhurst Ward's "post-delivery" meals were finished, Bill cooked for me. He did the grocery shopping and he even did the laundry. (Well, he had it sent out, but it still counts.)

What truly amazes me, even to this day, is Bill's way of discerning Liam's cries. He just knows. Two and a half years later I still have to remind him of the obvious: a sweater, extra change of clothes, drinks, snacks and small toys for the diaper bag and in the winter time, the scarf, hat and gloves. Other than that, Liam is always in good hands with his father.

I love how he talks to Liam, so lovingly, like a buddy yet still like a caring father. Just this past Wednesday, he had a full conversation for the first time with his son. (Normally, Liam just repeats the things you say or gives you one or two word answers. This time, he actually came out with a couple of long sentences!) Bill came home from work and asked him if he had gone out. Liam quickly said no and explained that it was raining and wet. Bill and I looked at each other amazed, and then Bill asked him if he wanted to go out with him now that it had stopped raining, to which he quickly answered, yes. (Note to self, I should be extra cautious of how much time I spend on this, that, and the other, as I see the potential of Liam becoming a little stool pigeon.)

No matter how tired Bill is from his duties as "father of the ward", he still gets on the floor to play with Liam whether it be with the cars, a ball or the crayons.


Thank you, my love, for being such a wonderful father and the best husband!

Boys will be boys

A few weeks ago, we went to check out the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7), that was docked just walking distance from the USS Intrepid. I can't and won't even attempt to describe all the different kinds of weaponry, military vessels, and aircraft that is carried by this tremendous ship. It's a guy thing. My boys certainly had fun checking everything out. Liam especially enjoyed the trucks, helicopters, and the fighter jet.


All I can say is that the carrier is intimidatingly big and kind of scary, but I'm grateful for our military forces that are out there every day in harm's way to protect and serve. I am glad we had the chance to express the same to the military personnel that we met along the way. Afterall, that is the whole reason for having Memorial Day.

A "Mother's Day" gift from my hubby

This year my wonderful husband went all out, spared no expense and gave me this awesome fry pan that I had wanted for cooking eggs. I absolutely love it, and I am SO excited to use it.

Father's Day is coming up real soon and then it's his birthday in July. So, I told him that I know EXACTLY what to give him; a choice of either a slow cooker, a stand-up mixer, a food processor, a weight for our griddle pan, a duvet or bed linen.

I think he got the picture.



Honey, I LOVE you! Thank you for my special gift!

Haircuts for my boys

(March, 2009)

My darling husband has been begging me for weeks to cut his hair. He loves it when I do, I on the other hand don't really enjoy the task and let me explain why. He has SO much hair! This man will never go bald. He will go gray eventually, maybe even white, but never bald. I mean, his head is so densely populated it takes me a couple of hours at least to cut his hair, even longer when Liam gets in the way. It takes a professional stylist a whole hour and now I know why. The clippers will just not go through and it clogs up on the first try, so I have to cut his hair first with regular beautician's scissors. I happen to own a really good pair. I must say though that his hair is very forgiving. There is so much hair that any mistakes (and there are plenty I'm sure) go relatively unnoticed, that is, until his hair starts growing out and that's when I can see all the unevenness. So, after trimming it down on the sides, around the ears and back, I get to work at the top and the front. Then, I "blend" it in with the clippers with the different sized guides around the ears and basically all over. The end result: short with a flat at the top, just the way he likes it. I secretly laughed as I looked at his head since it reminded me of a brush. I thought, okay, next time I need a scrub brush, I'll just grab his head and start scrubbing.

Then, it was my darling son's turn. Liam's hair, well, it was just begging to be cut or at least trimmed. It was getting kind of long over his eyes and wouldn't stay combed to the side unless I put some gel or mousse on it (which I am not about to start doing). It really couldn't wait any longer. Cutting this little angel's hair is no easy task either since he is not exactly a little angel sitting perfectly still for his haircut. He is a real fidgety two-year old and I get nervous around him holding a pair of scissors. Last time Bill had to hold on to him and he screamed bloody murder throughout the whole sitting. This time around I prepared him way in advance for the experience by explaining the process to him. It also helped a lot that he got to see his father getting his hair cut, so he sat willingly on his high chair. Since he was born, his hair has been cut or trimmed a grand total of three times: a short trim by my mother last year in May (to get his hair away from his eyes), a complete buzz cut in mid August, and now another cut just this past weekend. Call me crazy, but I like his hair long. It curls up when it's long in the back and sides and looks adorable (as evidenced in this next sweet photo taken last year).

(August, 2008)

Late last summer, I gave in to Bill's request and I buzzed it down really short. I almost cried. For weeks after that haircut, I massaged his scalp at every bath time to stimulate his hair growth. Poor kid, he would just sit there in the bath and complain, "Mama! No!"

(August, 2008)

This time, I decided that I would just trim about an inch lengthwise. I rounded up some toys, sang some songs along the way, and snipped a little here and there. I thought, okay, so far so good; this isn't too bad. Then I needed to cut the front. He moved around quite a lot, and understandably so. I was intruding his play space. So, that front part didn't turn out too good. I will just have to wait a little bit and even it out later. Overall, my husband and I were pleased with the end result.

Before



After

My sweet, handsome boys! I'll cut your hair anytime!